I Use Twitter, Please Rob Me

nk497 writes "Developers looking to prove a point about the information people are sharing on social networking sites have unveiled a new tool called Please Rob Me. It hunts out tweets from people who are also using location-based services telling the world that they're out of town, and then directs the world to go rob their house. The creators of the site said: 'Don't get us wrong, we love the whole location-aware thing. The information is very interesting and can be used to create some pretty awesome applications. However, the way in which people are stimulated to participate in sharing this information is less awesome.' How long until the first actual robbery takes place?"

Comments

Release the lawyers..

[pak9rabid]

I sense some legal trouble for these guys in the near future..

Re:Release the lawyers..

[Idaho]

Their names look very Dutch to me (I'm Dutch myself), so I'm guessing the Netherlands (or perhaps Belgium).

You're probably right that "encouraging people to rob a specific person's house is actionable in every first world country". However, that's clearly not their stated intention - to the contrary, in fact.

In the Netherlands, if someone would start a lawsuit about this (could happen, sure), I'm guessing chances are pretty good that the judge will buy the argument of the website authors, especially since burglars can already trivially find the exact same information if they have two half-working brain cells, and their stated purpose is to actually make people aware of this obvious problem. In addition, whoever starts the lawsuit would probably first have to prove actual damages (e.g. being robbed), and that this was caused by this website, and even then there's the obvious counterpoint that they put this information online themselves in the first place, and it might have been trivially found without that website. The apparent intention (of the website authors) matters as well, probably more so than in the USA (this is just a feeling, I may be wrong).

So, it's hard to prove that a robbery was "caused" or "encouraged" by this website, even then it involved your own stupidity in putting that information publicly on the internet in the first place, therefore the chances of winning (as the person who got robbed) seem not that great. In addition to that, mostly everyone here has insurance covering their household effects, meaning they'd get (most of) the money back from an insurance company anyway, so why bother with the lawsuit.

Finally, if you lose, you typically have to pay the legal costs of the defending side - so starting the lawsuit is not without financial risk in the first place.

Much of this is probably also true in the USA, but the legal costs involved would be higher, and I somehow have a feeling, also the chances of losing. (IANAL, so I may be wrong about that.)

"How long until the first actual robbery"

[TheMeuge]

This isn't news. People's houses are cleared out regularly due to their Facebook status.

Re:"How long until the first actual robbery"

[i.r.id10t]

And before facebook (or any other social networking stuff) there were the obituaries in the local paper...

Re:"How long until the first actual robbery"

[jgtg32a]

Or Twits to be a bit more accurate

Re:"How long until the first actual robbery"

[Arimus]

Or just forgetting to cancel the milk or the pile of post just inside the front door, or news papers you forgot to cancel etc etc etc.

Re:"How long until the first actual robbery"

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell? Did facebook invent robbery? It's pretty fuck-face clear that everyone works 8 hours every day, usually from around 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon and children go to school pretty much the same time. Which retarded individual would need a whole week/few days to clear out valuables? You do a quick in-and-out after carefully picking the secluded house with fancy garden and low security in a neighborhood where no one knows you! NOT based on that *one* of the residents in the house *might* be out of town for the day, amateurs!

Re:"How long until the first actual robbery"

[Rary]

Or just forgetting to cancel the milk or the pile of post just inside the front door, or news papers you forgot to cancel etc etc etc.

There is a bit of a difference between leaving signs that you're away visible to anyone who happens to be passing your home, and actually broadcasting that information on the internet. More to the point, people who might otherwise take precautions, like getting a friend to pick up their mail while they're away on vacation, end up broadcasting the fact that they're away to the whole net-connected world and think nothing of it.

Of course, the detail that has been left out is that a Twitter search won't tell you if the alarm has been armed or if the three nasty rottweilers have been fed recently.

Re:"How long until the first actual robbery"

[Rary]

Of course, the detail that has been left out is that a Twitter search won't tell you if the alarm has been armed or if the three nasty rottweilers have been fed recently.

Neither will a pile of newspapers on the front porch.

Actually, the pile of newspapers does at least suggest that there are no rottweilers. If there were, somebody would be in charge of feeding them and letting them outside to "do their business", and most likely that person would pick up the newspapers while they're at it.

The newspapers don't, of course, tell you whether the alarm is armed, but of course there's always those stickers and signs that alarm companies put up all around your house when they install the alarm. The presence of signs/stickers suggests the alarm is probably armed (why wouldn't it be?), while a lack of signs/stickers suggests the alarm isn't armed (or even installed).

Everyone leaves their homes

[Rurik]

Yes, physical security, you're away from your home. So are a vast majority of people from between the hours of 9AM to 3PM every day. There's been a lot of backlash over this site, including Twitter suspending their account, which is just silly. It's the same level of surveillance that someone can do by just parking in front of your home. It's just that now they can see you over FourSquare (speaking of silly...). It's the same as posting on Twitter that you're stuck in traffic, or sending an email from a work-only address. Just another in a very, very long list of ways to see where you're currently at.

Criminals will still just sit out in front of your house and wait for the cars the leave.

Re:Everyone leaves their homes

[Anonymous Coward]

Sure, everyone leaves home, sometime. But, even a regular work schedule gets unexpected interruptions. People get sick, play hookie, take a personal day, etc. So, a would be thief can never be sure if you are there or not. Sure, they can setup camp outside and watch the house, that's a tried and true technique. But, you have to preselect your victim to do that and then exert some effort as well as risk being spotted while casing the joint.

But, with people Twittering and Facebooking their whereabouts a perpetrator can simply search for whoever isn't home right now. If they decide to target an individual, they can do so from a distance with very little effort, no chance of being discovered while they stalk their target, and near certainty that the target is not home.

You imply that these technologies are no greater threat than everyday real world threats. But, the truth is that these technologies allow the perpetrator to automate and vastly increase the efficiency of their "work". It is definitely a greater threat. You just lack vision.

Re:Everyone leaves their homes

[Rary]

This is exactly the point. Computers didn't enter the workplace so that people could suddenly do things that they couldn't do before. Computers simply made those work activities more efficient and effective. The same is true for other uses of computers. Using computers in crime doesn't mean crimes occur where they couldn't before, just that the criminals are more efficient and effective.

Besides, someone using old-fashioned casing techniques would assume that my house is empty right now because I normally leave for work at 6:45. However, someone using modern casing techniques (if I were a Twitter/Facebook/Foursquare user) would know that I'm working from home today.

This kind of technology takes much of the risk out of burglarizing homes.

Just because you can...

[2obvious4u]

doesn't mean you should.

It is one thing for unscrupulous behavior to happen, it is another to encourage it. Their motives may be "pure" in that they are trying to bring awareness about what people know about you and what "could" happen. That doesn't mean it should happen. Not everyone is a crook and we should all strive to not be crooks, it is better for everyone. There used to be a time when everyone left there doors unlocked and trusted the community to not rob them. Now the community is encouraging people to rob people. The issue isn't people sharing their information, its people like these guys who are just being ass holes. We shouldn't have to hide our information, people should just respect each other enough not to steal their stuff.

Re:Just because you can...

[BrokenHalo]

We shouldn't have to hide our information, people should just respect each other enough not to steal their stuff.

That would be a nice warm fuzzy world to live in, but the truth is that on this grossly overpopulated planet, we all HAVE to hide our personal information, because the world is just too full of asswipes to just pretend they don't exist.

Re:Just because you can...

[Jawn98685]

Sorry, this is definitely a case of "should". Clueless Twitter users (prepending "clueless" seems almost redundant...) who advertise to the world stuff that only a fool would advertise in any other medium need to have their noses rubbed in their own stupidity.

I don't understand the value of this to robbers

[xZgf6xHx2uhoAj9D]

The site doesn't tell you whether everyone in the household is gone, only if one person in the household is gone. A robber would still have to peek in the windows and do whatever it is robbers do to make sure the house is empty. But they could do that just by walking around some random neighbourhood and peeking in random windows; they don't need Twitter to tell them to peek into someone's windows.

You can question their methods...

[Ltap]

But if this raises awareness, full steam ahead. People need to figure out that if they have minute-by-minute updates of where they are and what they are doing, all of which is publically available, they will sooner or later have consequences.

Moreso than robberies: I'm surprised we don't have rapes because of this, i.e. a girl tweeting while drunk.

Re:Honeypot

[Lumpy]

I just wish the bait cars were full of explosives.

Honestly, Blow up a few car jackers or car thieves and make it REALLY public and suddenly car thefts will go way down.

Re:Hmmm...listen closely...

[natehoy]

I hear insurance companies quietly whispering about new schemes to monitor their customer's twitterfeeds and deny claims based on homeowner liability.

Re:The reverse side is:

[i.r.id10t]

Unless you live in a state that has a castle doctrine...

Re:poor thieves

[Archangel Michael]

Personally I don't have a problem with this kind of thing. Really, I don't. Want to rob, consider it a hazardous conditions.

I mean if someone wants to fuck with my stuff, then they have to fuck with me and my big guns. We shouldn't be protecting the asshats on the off chance that a drunk guy broken into my house accidentally, or it was a couple of stupid kids.

Stupid should hurt. Criminals are stupid lazy asshats for the most part, who are antisocial to boot.

I'm sick and tired of people who want to coddle the criminals while they are committing crimes. You breaking the law? Then you're responsible for what happens to you, and all that you do.

Seriously, criminals shouldn't have rights while they are committing crimes.

Google maps+streetview mashup=SWEET

[FreeUser]

Anyone mash this up with googlemaps and streetview yet? That would really drive the point home.

At last a little payback for all this unfettered twitter narcisism. It's probably not very nice, but I can't help feeling more than my share of shadenfreude...

Re:Sweet! Free Stuff!

[Exitar]

Yes, thank you "Please Rob Me", your wife is really hot! Now I will never have to meet her in a motel again thank to this wonderful service!

Lol child-like Americans :-)

[fantomas]

...and that's why a lot of us are glad US law doesn't quite rule the whole world just yet.... sueing somebody else for emotional damage because you posted on the public internet that you're not at home, because this causes you "a great deal of emotional unrest". Presumably the same people will be sueing Google and every other search engine that's archiving these posts as they scrape the internet?

Grow up, take responsibility for your own actions. If having the world knowing that you're not at home causes you "emotional unrest", well then don't tell the world. Seems to me that some folk are incredibly child-like, unable to take responsibility for their own actions. Not sure who to blame for this. But I sure hope these people don't have any influence or authority in the wider world, seems like they should be kept in some sort of kindergarten.

Re:Robbery? or burglury!

[dotgain]

Worry not! Free dictionaries around the world are blurring the definition as we speak. Another pair of words that used to mean different things, but now mean the same thing, thanks to good old fashioned honest-to-god ignorance. See also "literally" vs. "figuratively"

Re:Sweet! Free Stuff!

[wealthychef]

Funny, but seriously, this website is going about it all wrong. How about sending messages to those poor souls saying something like "Hey, you know you are making your location known to possibly unfriendly people?" Rushing right to publish the information to said villains is not the right thing to do, in fact, it's an attack in and of itself and frankly this website should be subject to a lawsuit or even criminal action, as its intent is not benign.