A Tweet Too Far?

Posted Monday 22nd June 2009 by Kerry in Social Media.

twitterrA man in Arizona has recently speculated that his recent tweets on social network site Twitter, is the reason he was burgled as his burglars may have read his tweets concerning his holiday.
Israel Hyman posted to his 2,000 strong Twitter-followers that he and his wife were ‘preparing to head out of town,’ that they had ‘another ten hours of driving ahead’ and later on that they ‘had made it to Kansas City.’
When he returned from his trip Hyman found that someone had broken into his home and stolen thousands of dollars worth of video equipment that he uses for his business, which is advertised on his Twitter account.
He is quoted as saying, ‘My wife thinks it was a random thing, but I have my suspicions’ he told reporters, ‘They didn’t take any of our normal consumer electronics.’
Talking about anything personal on a social networking site can be quite risky, even having personal details such as birthdates and further information can be used for identity fraud and in Hyman’s case the advertising of his unoccupied home may have been the cause for his burglary.
All new aspects of technology are open invitations to thieves and criminals taking into account the new real-time aspect for mobile uploads. Location aware technology is also causing problems; the card in some cameras now automatically adds locations to photos uploaded, drawing a direct map to where certain people may live. You only need to photograph your friend in your living room and the online community can see your wide-screen television.
So next time you want to share everything with the online world, consider if it is at all wise, after all some things are best kept to yourself.

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