Want to rob someone blind with minimal risk of getting caught? Here’s a simple 3-step program: (Not that I recommend doing this, BTW!)
- Find someone you want to burglarize who
a. Has a Twitter account
b. Uses a geolocation service, like www.foursquare.com - Watch their feed for an announcement that they’re someplace else, or better yet, out of town.
- Break in, grab their stuff, and beat a quick exit – through they probably won’t even realize that they’re stuff is gone until several days later when they get back into town.
Think that’s impossible? Go to search.twitter.com and do a search on the following term:
4sq -@foursquare
Look at the second listing down, lankyguy – it’s looking a lot like he’s vacationing in Hawaii.
Jump to his twitter feed, sure enough, that’s what he’s doing. And look, his name’s Kyle Baxter and he’s from New York.
Now let’s google Kyle Baxter New York. Sure enough, the first result on the list shows his resume, including his phone number and enough data to indicate that he’s the actor who’s twitter page we located earlier.
I’ll stop here so as to not give more information to the stupid criminals out there who haven’t managed to figure out how to find his address on their own, but suffice it to say, I’ve only been working on this for 5 minutes, and I know an address of at least one guy who probably has some pretty sweet loot sitting unguarded in his apartment right now. (Sorry, Kyle, hope your stuff’s there when you get home, you may want to be more careful next time!)
Here’s the key question – are you being too transparent and in doing so, inviting every lowlife in the world to steal your stuff?
Or are you being wise and using social media with discretion.
For those of you who follow me, do you have any idea from my feed, my blog and other sources that I’ve been to Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Miami in the last 3 weeks? When I travel, I occasionally post articles and pictures from the trip, but never until after I arrive home. I recommend that you do the same.
Also, consider the value added to your audience by proclaiming that you are currently on your way to somewhere else. Yes, it may cause some jealousy, but what do they care that you’re currently in “Dulles Airport with 4 other people“?
This is a serious enough issue that insurance companies are announcing that they will increase your insurance premiums by 10% or more if you choose to belong to these services. Frankly, I think that’s low – you’re likely to see significantly higher increases than that, especially after the first time you get burgled.
I don’t know about you, but for me, the risk of revealing presence is too high. Plus, the potential for people unfollowing you because all you ever post about is where you’re eating lunch creates more negatives than positives.
My recommendation? Just say no to geolocation and don’t reveal your travels in your social media stream!
And those of you at Twitter, Facebook, etc.? Please think twice before making this technology public and absolutely, give those of us who are smart enough not to use it, the ability to opt out!
Agree or disagree with me? Think I’m shortsighted or not “social” enough in this opinion? Let me know by leaving a comment below!
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Don Crowther is a leading social media marketing and online marketing expert. He helps companies ranging from Fortune-500-level giants to entrepreneurs make more money online using proven social media and search marketing techniques.
Yikes!
Transparency be darned; I want to keep my stuff.
Good post…
Well, yes, putting your lifestream in the open is a potential threat to your privacy and safety. But I wouldn’t say no to geolocation wholesale. Take Magic Maze for Android as an example. It’s a fun game that’s about geolocation, but it does not make your location public. If fact, you get all of the benefits of GPS without telling the world where you are.
Very interesting point of view.
It’s kind of funny that your post popped into my Twitter stream as I was listening to a webinar put on by Poynter and the Online News Association all about how news orgs can use Locations based services and data for reporting and sourcing news stories.
I don’t want to completely disagree with your point, because I think there are some valid points. As many cons as there can be to using location services, there can be just as many or more pro’s – IMO.
I think it’s about moderation – just like everything. I use FourSquare and Gowalla – as well as Twitter and other services that are quickly adapting geo-location attributes. However, I don’t broadcast every time I check in or attach it to every tweet. I think it’s just like I don’t tweet that I’m going to lunch, standing in line at the DMV, or some other banal post. I also don’t follow or un-follow those that do that all the time. It’s the same with my own Facebook feed. I just don’t care…..most of the time.
There are going to be some great uses for this such as finding your friends at a conference or concert. Seeing that someone you haven’t seen in a while is just at the coffee shop down the street. Mostly, I see geo-location playing a role in news reporting, gathering, and PR in the future with new services that will allow people subscribe to news based on a geo-location vs. a topic. For instance, tools like EveryBlock and Outside.in .
Now, that said, lets not get BSOS (bright shiny object syndrome) and think this is going to change everything right away, but it is going to change a lot. While there is a generation of folks who are fearful about privacy and there are cultures that are also extremely private, we have to look at the future and the younger generation. Their fears are not nearly as much as ours. They are very transparent – sometimes too much so. These services and applications will expand – IMO, because they are using them freely now and will expect it later on. That’s the reason Facebook just passed Google Reader as a news source.
Michael Pranikoff
Global Director, Emerging Media
PR Newswire
Thank you, Michael, for your very thoughtful comment. I agree. I don’t want to throw any proverbial babies out here, as I do feel that there is huge opportunity as we figure out how to use these capabilities in the future, but did want to warn people of the dangers.
Great points!
Don