Cloak: new 'anti-social' app helps users avoid friends

New smartphone app uses FourSquare and Instagram to help people steer clear of unwanted interactions

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A NEW smartphone app will help shy or secretive users avoid their friends by alerting them to their whereabouts using geo-location data from social networks. The so-called "anti-social" network warns users where their friends are on a map if they post to either FourSquare and Instagram.

Some users have criticised the service for failing to support the two biggest social networks Facebook and Twitter, but the app's developers, programmer Brian Moore and former BuzzFeed creative director Chris Baker, have defended their decision. Most Twitter users have their location information turned off, they say, and it is very imprecise anyway.

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