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Pleaserobme.com pulls together updates on Twitter from
people who broadcast where they are at any given time, reports the Daily
Telegraph.
It says it is making the point that if people are telling the world they are
not at home, they are leaving themselves open to be burgled.
The Dutch website lists "all those empty homes out there" and providing a
running total of "new opportunities".
The developers of the site took just a few hours to put up the site after
thousands began posting updates about where they are in the online social
game Foursquare.
Users of Foursquare, a Twitter-type application, check in on their mobile
phone to record their position on a map, indicating where they are - and
where they are not.
Website developers Boy Van Amstel, Frank Groeneveld and Barry Borsboom said
they did not want to encourage criminals, only to remind people that sharing
information on the internet carried its own risks.
They say on the site: "Our intention is not, and never has been, to have
people burglarised. 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."
But Simon Davies, director of the Privacy International campaign group, said
the website was "completely and totally irresponsible".
"What they have actually achieved is providing a one-stop-shop for burglars
rather than achieve their goals, which are to raise awareness."
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