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Why Please Rob Me was a good idea

Posted on 14 May 2010 at 10:40

Davey Winder explains why he applauds the controversial Please Rob Me site

Regular readers will know I’m an advocate of online privacy, but one who also encourages sensible use of social networks. So you might be surprised to learn that when a group called Forthehack launched the Please Rob Me website, I thought it was quite a good idea. Bear with me while I explain further.

What this site did is republish data posted on Twitter by users of the Foursquare friend-finding social guide service. When people check in to Foursquare they’re asked whether they want to share their current location with friends, and whether they want that information disseminated via Facebook or Twitter.

Many people choose to do just that, the idea being that if your friends and other Foursquare/Twitter users know where you are, the greater the chance you can meet up. What Forthehack did was grab Twitter posts from such Foursquare users and republish it, pointing up when they left home and suggesting their house is therefore currently empty.

If the publicity surrounding Please Rob Me forces people to think about what they do when they publish their location, even if they decide to bear the risk, then it’s okay by me

I approved of their action because it helped to highlight – in a hard-to-ignore way – the danger in people using geo-location services to tell the world where they currently are and what they’re doing. While it might be nice to notify your closest friends of your precise location, it isn’t such a great idea to share that information with absolutely anyone.

I’m not having a pop at Foursquare, which is an interesting service that actually takes privacy seriously, but rather at the culture of personal information-sharing that’s sprung up – particularly around social networking sites.

If the publicity surrounding Please Rob Me forces people to think about what they do when they publish their location, even if they decide to bear the risk, then it’s okay by me. I could automatically publish my location via the GPS built into my iPhone and the Twittelator app I use to access Twitter, but I choose not to because I don’t want everyone to know my exact location at all times, and the reason is to protect my privacy and property.

I wouldn’t leave my house with a sign on the front door stating that I’m off to the flicks and will be back around 11pm either.

Forthehack also argues that danger lies in publicly telling people where you are “because it leaves one place you’re definitely not... home”. It sums up the madness by pointing out that on the one hand we often leave lights on when we go on holiday, while at the same time we tell everyone online that we’ve arrived at the airport.

It would seem that even the people behind Foursquare kind of agree, as the official blog notes that “location is sensitive data and people should be careful about with whom and when they share it”, insisting that the company does “everything we can to make sure that our users know with what people and social sites they are sharing their location”.

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