Around the Net
PleaseRobMe.com -- Wise Or Witless
- Telegraph (UK), Friday, February 19, 2010 3:11 PM
Dutch website PleaseRobMe.com is getting some bad press for publishing a stream of away-from-home Twitter users -- which its dubs "opportunities" -- and their present geographic locations. Rather
than criminal accomplices, however, its founders claim to be highlighting the dangers of location-based social networks like Twitter and Foursquare, which encourage members to broadcast their precise
geographic locations to the world. Critics don't buy it.
"They have raised a poignant and important issue about what people disclose on the internet but they could have done this so much
better," Simon Davies, director of the Privacy International campaign group, tells The Daily Telegraph. "What they have actually achieved is providing a one-stop-shop for burglars rather than achieve
their goals, which are to raise awareness."
I am sick to death of bullies hiding under a cloak of self-righteousness. There are so many simple ways to have made that point, and even to have shown off their mad skillz while they were at it.
Eh, yes and no. Think about it - we all KNOW the dangers, we hear about it, so people have been raising the point. Problem is in our society where we all have the attention span of a gnat, we need to be hit over the head - hard - with something to finally "get it". Because this comes awfully close, and is getting attention for the risk, it might accomplish just a flesh wound vs. permanent brain damage. I for one, after seeing this (my husband sent me the link) will certainly think twice - and STOP - before posting anything like that again. If it accomplishes ACTION vs. inactive awareness (our current status), then maybe it did accomplish the goal.