Twitter is a great social networking site used by millions to shoot out quick messages to the internet or friends. However, if you send out a tweet where you have enabled locations or checked in with services like Four Square, your Latitude and Longitude are also included in your message. If your tweets are public, that also means anybody in the world can find out where you published your tweet from.
A big problem comes up here, if you tweet with your location included, and infer into your message you are at home, the bad guys out there will know your address without any hard work on their part. Just by then cruising through your twitter profile, they can see if you have uploaded any pictures of expensive items or nice cars and potentially decide that your house seems like a great place to rob.
There is a website that has been created called We Know Your House to point out this potential issue. You can also Opt out from this website if you don’t want your tweets showing up here.
Its a good reminder to check your settings on your Twitter profile and make sure that if you are including your location into tweets that you are aware of the issues around it. If you don’t think the world really needs to know your exact location when you are tweeting, don’t include it.
Leave a reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.