Earlier this year, Mashable contributor Melissa Rowley wrote a post for the Los Angeles tech blog lalawag about some of the negative aspects of the location-based social network Foursquare: interruptions, pranks, scams and robberies.

As with all social media -- and any tool, really -- there are always cons to go right along with the pros. While we believe in safety above oversharing, we here at NakedCity have identified a middle road that works wonders for us, and probably for you, too -- unless you killed your account already.

Photo by AV Flox.

Imagine you're having an affair. You need to be covert and ideally, you'd keep it in your apartment. But face it, a relationship that stays inside four walls gets stale fast and we all love a little edge. What to do? You can consult Yelp looking for some of the lesser known places, something away from the neighborhoods where friends reside, hoping everyone's general loathing of traffic will keep them from venturing too far outside their respective boundaries.

Or you could just check Foursquare to see what everyone is doing.

Think about it. Just as it works wonders for connecting people, the information this network provides can be used perfectly well in the reverse to avoid them. When everyone is downtown, it's perfectly safe to play in Hollywood. When they're in WeHo, why not enjoy some fresh air in Silverlake?

Not to mention Foursquare can help you establish an alibi. You check in somewhere innocuous, say, your usual haunt and voila -- no other party necessary. People tend to take this information as fact with no other basis. If it's online it must be true, right?

Fourquare isn't a liability. It's an asset in the proper execution of any covert operation.

So go forth, add everyone to your list of contacts -- especially the people you don't like. The more people you put on there, and the more you assist in convincing them that checking in is the thing to do, the easier it will be to avoid them.

In a world obsessed with destroying the concept of privacy, consider this your silent rebellion.