Website Reveals Risks of Social Media

02/19/2010

A new website aimed at revealing the risks of social media may also have a message for home insurance companies.

Please Rob Me streams Twitter posts in which users reveal that they are not home. These updates are referred to as "opportunities" and include information normally available on the social media website: username, photo and time posted.

"The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not... home," the website said. "So here we are; 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."

Launched by Dutch company ForTheHack, the website says its intention is to raise awareness, not to have people burglarized. It pointed to services like FourSquare, Brightkite and Google Buzz that, like Twitter, host updates that often indicate a consumer's exact location and how long they will be there.

There are about 2.15 million break-ins a year, according to the Insurance Information Institute. Burglaries increase during vacation months of July and August because criminals are often opportunists. More than 65 percent of burglaries are residential.

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