Please Rob Me

A couple of weeks ago in class we discussed a website called www.pleaserobme.com. It is a website that posts feeds from Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter in regards to people's location. I also discovered that people are advertising ways to search Twitter to find the posts that let users know they are not at home. "Cleverly designed Twitter Search" does just that.

In this past Thursday''s Indianapolis Star there was also an article about pleaserobme.com A family had been robbed and they believe it was because of the tweets they had sent while not at home.

It seems it has been a recent development that sites like pleaserobme are becoming popular. The economy is bad and times are tough. There are desperate people out there. Its incredibly easy to know the whereabouts of people and if its a good time to rob them. Its sad that a fun social networking tool can be used against you but its a reminder to everyone that what you post is public. Use safe practices when tweeting. Do not post that you are going to be out on vacation for a whole week and that you wouldn't find a house sitter.

I enjoy using Facebook to post pictures of events that I attend but I feel that its safer than posting on Twitter because of the security settings. Only my friends can see my posts. I do not accept all friend requests and I make lists to determine who can see what. I think Twitter needs to have the same options.

If I didn't use social sites on the internet then I would talk to my friends even less. Using Facebook and Twitter has allowed me to stay in touch with friends and family. Its an amazing thing to catch up with someone that you haven't spoken to in 10 years. Even though there are people out there that want to use social networking to their robbing advantage, I will not stop using Twitter or Facebook. I will be careful and mindful about what I post but I can't give up on something that I enjoy so much.