The launch and publicity this week surrounding a new website PleaseRobMe.com has highlighted some of the dangers of sharing too much personal information online.
Social Media makes it easy to tell people what you are doing and where you are located. Whilst, in the main, the people you tell will have no evil intent, there is a risk that publishing this information could make life easy for criminals.
Telling the world where you are, right now, could even encourage a burglary.
The PleaseRobMe.com website uses geographical information published by users on Social Media such as Twitter and Foursquare to determine when users are away from their homes. The creators of this website are quite clear that it is not designed to encourage crime, but to highlight the dangers of sharing too much personal information online.
This also raises an insurance related question. Could the use of Social Media result in higher insurance premiums in the future, particularly for home insurance?
The insurance comparison website Confused.com certainly thinks it could do. They are predicting home insurance premium hikes of up to 10% in the future for Twitter users who share geographical location.
Helpfully, they also provide three tips for reducing the risk of using Social Media and the risk of being burgled as a result:
1. Never post your home address or other personal information such as your home phone number on social networking sites
2. Don’t follow people you don’t know on social networks and use block others from seeing your profile if you don’t know them
3. Turn off location-based services on Twitter and Facebook unless you absolutely need to use them
