{"id":5730,"date":"2010-02-22T23:48:04","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T23:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicityhound.com\/blog\/?p=5730"},"modified":"2010-02-22T23:48:04","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T23:48:04","slug":"when-you-tweet-you-might-end-up-on-pleaserobme-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/marketing\/social-media\/twitter\/when-you-tweet-you-might-end-up-on-pleaserobme-com\/","title":{"rendered":"When you tweet, you might end up on PleaseRobMe.com"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Logo<\/a><\/p>\n

Lots of people don’t think twice before advertising where they are, or where they’re going, on Twitter or Facebook.<\/p>\n

“Dinner’s only half made,\u00a0but I’m rushing to\u00a0pick up my kid from soccer.”<\/p>\n

“Leaving home and heading to a client meeting at Pete’s\u00a0Bistro.”<\/p>\n

“Outa here for a weekend on the ski slopes.”<\/p>\n

If that describes you, and you also use the FourSquare app on your phone, don’t be surprised if your smiling face and your next tweet show up on PleaseRobMe.com<\/a>, a site that\u00a0mocks people who broadcast to the world when they’re leaving home and where they’re going.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s how it works. People download the FourSquare app<\/a>\u00a0to their phone and create a profile. You can\u00a0invite\u00a0friends from your Gmail, Facebook or Twitter accounts. You then use FourSquare\u00a0to\u00a0“check-in.”\u00a0When you tell people where you are,\u00a0FourSquare\u00a0tells your friends where they can find you and recommends places to go and\u00a0things to do nearby.<\/p>\n

The problem occurs when you tell FourSquare to\u00a0automatically broadcast your whereabouts to your Twitter and Facebook followers. As soon as somebody checks in,\u00a0their tweet or message shows up on a scrolling list on PleaseRobMe.com’s home page. Dozens of new messages appear each minute.<\/p>\n

Thieves can use the information on PleaseRobMe.com several ways. They can set up a filter and search by username or city. Both Twitter and FourSquare note when you have marked your location. That gives thieves an idea of about how long you’ll be away from home.<\/p>\n

“The danger is publicly telling people where you are,” says\u00a0PleaseRobMe.\u00a0“This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home.\u00a0 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.”<\/p>\n

Social Media Rx<\/a>, the social media assessment\u00a0I created with my business partner, Jeanne Hurlbert, through our company, MySocialMediaSolution.com, warns people about sharing information about when their homes are unoccupied.\u00a0The assessment is a series of multiple-choice questions designed to test the user’s knowledge of social media. The\u00a0report it generates\u00a0gives each user a customized formula that guides them on what to\u00a0discuss at social media sites. And it\u00a0offers hundreds of other helpful suggestions about social media protocol, tips and tools, including advice about safety.<\/p>\n

Here’s what our\u00a0report says about advertising when you’re going on vacation:<\/p>\n

Sites like Twitter, where some people bare all, could be a criminal\u2019s best friend. Some people love sharing details of their vacations and other out-of-town trips with their social media friends. But not us. We think it\u2019s smart to never let people know when we\u2019re leaving a house or office that will be unoccupied.<\/p>\n

What about you? Do you use FourSquare with Twitter or Facebook, and if so, do you restrict the types of messages you broadcast to the world?<\/p>\n

What about\u00a0PleaseRobMe.com?\u00a0 Do you think the site is a public service because it underscores the safety problem?\u00a0Or does it\u00a0give burglars one more tool?\u00a0Do you think most of the people who show up on that site have any idea that they’re there?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lots of people don’t think twice before advertising where they are, or where they’re going, on Twitter or Facebook. “Dinner’s only half made,\u00a0but I’m rushing to\u00a0pick up my kid from soccer.” “Leaving home and heading to a client meeting at Pete’s\u00a0Bistro.” “Outa here for a weekend on the ski slopes.” If that describes you, and\u2026 Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","iawp_total_views":1,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[683],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5730","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-twitter","7":"entry"},"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Joan Stewart","author_link":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/author\/jstewart\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5730\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/purelysupp.com\/publicity\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}