PleaseRobMe.com reveals perils of real-time social media

I'm sure you've all done it. Posted on your Twitter feed or Facebook profile that "You're off out" or "Going away for the weekend", but posting the fact that your home is now unoccupied has led a Dutch developer to create a website highlighting the dangers of sharing such precise information.

The site, PleaseRobMe.com reveals the location of empty homes based solely on what people post online via social media sites or online games such as Foursquare, that is based on a person's location in the real world.

Boy Van Amstel, the developer behind the site, has denied he's a criminal mastermind or that he has grand burglary plans, saying that he created the site simply to prove a point.

"It started with me and a friend looking at our Twitter feeds and seeing more and more Foursquare posts," said Boy Van Amstel to the BBC.

"People were checking in at their house, or their girlfriend's or friend's house, and sharing the address - I don't think they were aware of how much they were sharing."

Van Amstell and fellow developers Frank Groeneveld and Barry Borsboom soon realised that the amount of people posting such information was staggering and as such, their openness online was leaving their homes exposed.

Hence the purpose of PleaseRobMe.com...

"Laughable how easy it is"

Designed in four hours, the website extracts information from players who have chosen to post their whereabouts automatically onto Twitter.

"It's basically a Twitter search - nothing new," said Mr Van Amstel. "Anyone who can do HTML and javascript can do this. You could almost laugh at how easy it is.

"The website is not a tool for burglary," he said. "The point we're getting at is that not long ago it was questionable to share your full name on the internet. We've gone past that point by 1000 miles."

As such, the site is remaining live, hopefully to act as warning to those who are so open with their lives. 

Did you just post on your Twitter feed that you're off on holiday from tomorrow for two weeks? If so, I'd suggest you delete that...

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