A lot of Social Networks like FourSquare, Facebook, Twitter and more recently, Google Buzz, allow you to post your location along with your updates.
Location aware social network updates are so useful in so many contexts. But, announcing where you are at any particular time also comes with a danger.
You are telling the world one place you are not at. Your home.
PleaseRobMe.com is a site that is built with raising an awareness of this danger.
The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information.
With sites like FourSquare make it very attractive to ‘colonize’ places you visit, it might be rewarding to become the Mayor of the local coffee shop. But, is it worth the risk of telling anyone who has an eye on your profile that no one is at your home?
This gets worse when your friends want to ‘colonize’ your home which means they have to enter your home address to tell everyone else where they are – your home.
So, next time you use one of these social networks to announce to the world where you are, be aware, that you could actually be screaming – Please rob me!
