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."

Read the whole story at Telegraph (UK) »

location-based, social media

2 comments about "PleaseRobMe.com -- Wise Or Witless".

Check to receive email when comments are posted.

Eric Scoles from brand cool marketing, February 22, 2010 at 4:06 p.m.
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.
Reply

Tiffany Lyman Otten from Tiffany Otten Consulting, LLC, February 23, 2010 at 10:17 a.m.

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.