John
02-20-2010, 09:01 AM
A new website, which aims to highlight the dangers of sharing information about your location on social networking sites, has been branded "irresponsible".
Pleaserobme.com pulls together updates on Twitter from people who broadcast where they are at any given time, reports the Daily Telegraph.
It says it is making the point that if people are telling the world they are not at home, they are leaving themselves open to be burgled.
The Dutch website lists "all those empty homes out there" and providing a running total of "new opportunities".
The developers of the site took just a few hours to put up the site after thousands began posting updates about where they are in the online social game Foursquare.
Users of Foursquare, a Twitter-type application, check in on their mobile phone to record their position on a map, indicating where they are - and where they are not.
Website developers Boy Van Amstel, Frank Groeneveld and Barry Borsboom said they did not want to encourage criminals, only to remind people that sharing information on the internet carried its own risks.
They say on the site: "Our intention is not, and never has been, to have people burglarised. On one end we're leaving lights on when we're going on a holiday, and on the other we're telling everybody on the internet we're not home."
But Simon Davies, director of the Privacy International campaign group, said the website was "completely and totally irresponsible".
"What they have actually achieved is providing a one-stop-shop for burglars rather than achieve their goals, which are to raise awareness."
Pleaserobme.com pulls together updates on Twitter from people who broadcast where they are at any given time, reports the Daily Telegraph.
It says it is making the point that if people are telling the world they are not at home, they are leaving themselves open to be burgled.
The Dutch website lists "all those empty homes out there" and providing a running total of "new opportunities".
The developers of the site took just a few hours to put up the site after thousands began posting updates about where they are in the online social game Foursquare.
Users of Foursquare, a Twitter-type application, check in on their mobile phone to record their position on a map, indicating where they are - and where they are not.
Website developers Boy Van Amstel, Frank Groeneveld and Barry Borsboom said they did not want to encourage criminals, only to remind people that sharing information on the internet carried its own risks.
They say on the site: "Our intention is not, and never has been, to have people burglarised. On one end we're leaving lights on when we're going on a holiday, and on the other we're telling everybody on the internet we're not home."
But Simon Davies, director of the Privacy International campaign group, said the website was "completely and totally irresponsible".
"What they have actually achieved is providing a one-stop-shop for burglars rather than achieve their goals, which are to raise awareness."