Please Rob Me
I know this has been discussed elsewhere on the blogosphere (which I believe is flat, rather then spherical) but I’ve yet to see an Irish site discuss it, or even be mentioned via twitter. So, I’ll point it out here.
I’ve recently gotten into using foursquare, which is a service that utilises your mobile device with GPS built-in to find where you are and allow you to broadcast your location. These locations are input by a community of users, so if you’re in a bar/shop/street that isn’t on the system yet, you can easily add it. The benefit is that you can win badges of honour for using it. The more you use it, and the more you travel, the more badges you’ll earn. On top of that, you can become the “mayor” of a location by visiting it more then others. At time of writing, after some persistent use on my journeying into the city I’m now the mayor of the MET office, which is near my house, my local Spar, my local A.I.B. branch, the D.I.T. snackery (the cafeteria in Kevin Street is actually called the “snackery”, much to its own shame) and somehow, the Dublin Spire. This is hard work. Clicking “check in” all the time. Of course, it becomes infinitely more difficult when I cycle into town!
Anyway, the point is that I’m always broadcasting where I am. It’s also not an incredible stretch to find out where I live via these services, or even just by using Facebook or LinkedIn. Which is fine. I have chosen to share this information. Sometimes it’s needed (for work, I get things delivered daily… so some people need to know where I am). Most often, though, it’s not of any interest to my followers/friends/buddies.
More to the point here is that I’m always broadcasting when I’m not at home. Not too much of a problem for me, as I don’t live alone. My fancy computers and TVs are safe in my northside Dublin suburban home. However, what if I lived alone, and kept broadcasting the fact that I have some great, expensive, equipment in my house? And then someone found out where I lived? Then, again, someone knew I was out at the Spire or the Met Office? i.e. Definitely not at home… because my GPS-enabled iPhone just announced to the world via Twitter or Facebook that I was out.
Barry Borsboom, Boy van Amstel and Frank Groeneveld figured this out, and realised that some very rudimentary searches on Twitter would show up a lot of people who were not at home. Much to the shegrin of Foursquare, TripIt and other similar services, these guys came up with a system called Please Rob Me. All the system does is evaluate how much information people put forward through social media outlets. Specifically, giving a dangerous insight into how much information someone who wants to do nasty things can get.
The other question is, of course, do we care? In Ireland we’re generally fairly safe from burglars in comparison to other countries.
Approximately €72 million worth of goods were stolen from Irish households between July 2008 and June 2009, which equates to an average value if €3,011 per home burgled. Most of this seems to have been jewelry, as electronics and the like is difficult to sell on, or exchange. Despite the seemingly huge figure, this is actually a decrease in home robbery. However, maybe if there was a guarantee that the occupant wasn’t in the house (through a message on foursquare, linked to a twitter account, linked to a lonely hearts posting somewhere – providing evidence that you live alone!) there would be a greater chance of a social media-savvy burglar breaking in and taking your possessions.
It might be a little doomsday-ish, but it’s worth contemplating as we discuss social media and communities as being the most transparent way of meeting new like-minded people online. Maybe we’re too transparent sometimes?
