Location based services can be helpful to the user, no question about that. They are most often implemented and used in mobile devices who are able to return the location of the owner to the network where these information can get utilized in several ways from locating the nearest post office, restaurant or atm to locating a friend or object.
But these location based services can also pose a threat, especially if they are linked with social networking sites and public status information.
Please Rob Me demonstrates the dangers of location based services by allowing searches for Twitter usernames or locations on their website.
Returned are Twitter messages of users who post that they are not at home, hence the name of the website Please Rob Me as this would be an ideal opportunity for someone to scout an object and rob the user who posted the status update.
The website conveniently links to the Google Maps location of the person who posted the status update (which usually is the user’s home address).
The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home. 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. It gets even worse if you have “friends” who want to colonize your house. That means they have to enter your address, to tell everyone where they are. Your address.. on the internet.. Now you know what to do when people reach for their phone as soon as they enter your home. That’s right, slap them across the face.
The goal of the project is of course not to provide criminals with an opportunity to rob houses but to raise awareness that location based services if linked to public notifications can be dangerous to the individual. (via Caschy)
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Rofl!!!
meh…. let it all come out in the wash… the stupid will filter them selfs out in this new paradigm we call the InterWeb…
who uses twitter that has anything intelligent to say?
is it not the Blog for Tards?
Twits and their twitters are funny. (Why did you think the founders named it TWITters?)
The good thing is they’re mostly too stupid to read articles like this. And the rest of us can have hours of enjoyment. Nothing more entertaining than reading on the bleeding heart news the travails of imbeciles and how one should feel sorry for them. After all, it can happen to YOU too – if you’d suddenly lost your brains and became a twit.