People in San Francisco Are Mad That a New App Lets You Spy on Bars to See How Busy They Are

A weird new app lets San Francisco residents monitor local bars via live video feed to see what’s happening there and to check how busy venues are. 2Night, which launched earlier this year, uses a network of cameras at various Bay Area establishments to provide remote insights into what’s happening at those locations.

“Connecting DJs, bands, and Clubs with the SF night crowd using real-time insights and streams,” the app’s Instagram page says, while its website calls it the “Scout on a Night Out.” So far, the app only has contracts with “five to eight venues,” The San Francisco Standard writes.

Some local bar patrons have predictably been a bit perturbed (creeped out, even) by an app that remotely monitors them and streams their drunken revelry to an unknown amount of strangers on the internet.

“You should be able to let loose in a bar where Big Brother isn’t watching you,” a young woman told the Standard when asked about the app. “Just go to a fucking bar,” she added, seeming to balk at the purpose of the app. “And if it’s not cool you go to another bar.”

“Completely invasive” is apparently how another bar-goer described it.

However, others seemed to like the idea quite a bit: “That would be sick!” one bar-goer apparently told the outlet, when asked about the app.

Your mileage, obviously, will vary. Lucas Harris, the co-founder of 2Night, has said that businesses that partner with the app are in control of the cameras and that the feeds are mainly meant to “offer a glimpse of live shows at bars, clubs, and other event venues,” the Standard writes. Harris and his co-founder, Francesco Bini, also told the outlet they had introduced live stream blurring to anonymize the feeds and keep individual partygoers from being identified.

Gizmodo reached out to the app developers for more information and will update this story if it responds.

Correction: This article originally reported on the app 2Night but referred to the app as 2Nite in error. Both apps offer night life suggestions and services, but 2Night offers live streaming, while 2Nite does not. We regret the error.