Can Your Computer Make You An Easy Target For Criminals?
I know many other people, in many different occupations, whose work has been made easier by the Internet. I know many others whose jobs wouldn't even exist if not for the 'net. But it's not just those of us with legitimate jobs who are aided by today's technology. Unfortunately, in our increasingly connected society, it's also easier for criminals to do their dirty work. And I'm not just talking about phishes and hackers and others who operate solely at a distance.Believe it or not, local thieves and con artists benefit from the internet as well...
Take burglars, for instance. Once upon a time, it took some time and effort to be a successful "break and enter" guy. Since most burglars don't want a confrontation - they just want to get in and get the loot and get out as quickly as possible without getting caught - they would spend some time conducting surveillance ("casing the joint") to learn the habits of occupants, to be able to predict when they would be away. They would knock on doors, pretending to be door-to-door salespeople or survey takers, to get a look inside the house so they could determine if there was anything worth stealing. They used clues such as newspapers piling up in the driveway to signal them that homeowners were away on vacation.
Today fewer people subscribe to newspapers - many of us get all our news online or via TV - but that's okay, because burglars have much better sources for finding out that your house is empty. They can just follow you on Twitter or become your FaceBook friend, and you'll let them know not just that you're leaving town, but where you're going and how long you're going to be away. If they're really lucky, you might even post other useful info, such as the fact that your dog died last week, or that your alarm system has been on the blink.
And it's even better (for the burglar) if you also recently bragged about the expensive painting that you just added to your collection or the high-dollar TV that you bought last week. Now there's no need to try to guess, based on the outside of the home, what goodies might be inside. Our bad guy can "shop online" for exactly the merchandise he's interested in stealing. Last year, an Arizona man tweeted that he was going out of town and his home was promptly burglarized. Computer equipment worth thousands of dollars was stolen:
Of course, it could take a lot of time to try to follow the comings and goings of everyone in the neighborhood that you're targeting. Surely, with today's technology, there's a way to expedite the process. Indeed there is; our would-be crook can just go to a helpful web site and find "new opportunities" - posts gathered from social networking sites indicating that people are not at home:
The site ostensibly exists not to help burglars, but to raise people's awareness about posting their location data in public venues. There's nothing illegal about it; they're just aggregating posts that are available to anyone from social networking pages that are open to the public. And according to a survey done by a British insurance and investment management company, 40% of social networking users share their holiday plans on sites like FaceBook and Twitter. If you absolutely must post that you and your whole family are five hundred miles away from home, it might be a good idea to mention in that post how much you're missing your three pit bulls, who had to stay home, or how thankful you are that your cousin, the Marine sharpshooter, volunteered to house-sit while you're gone.
Even if you're diligent about not revealing your location in your posts, that doesn't mean you're safe. Location-aware applications are becoming more and more popular, especially for smart phones, which have built-in GPS chips. Now some laptop computers also include GPS. This means software programs can access the information from the GPS hardware and know where you're located (or more precisely, where your cell phone or laptop is located). Some apps use this information to provide you with location-specific information; for example, if I look up a restaurant with Bing on my Omnia II phone, it displays ads for restaurants that are here close to my house.
Location-awareness can be used by program developers for all sorts of purposes. Some apps (such as Twittelator for the iPhone) let you automatically send your location to your followers. The intent is to be able to keep up with where your friends are so you can get together when you're in the same vicinity. But if you aren't careful, these applications can also expose your location to burglars, stalkers, or other people who will use the information for nefarious purposes.
Google Buzz is a new service that integrates with your Gmail account, and there is a mobile version of it for iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android and Symbian phones. According to the Google folks, "Rather than simply creating a mobile version of Buzz, we decided to take advantage of the unique features of a mobile device - in particular, location." The app can attach location tags to your posts and although this can be turned off, it is one of the key features of the program so many people will be using it without thinking about the ramifications.
https://sites.google.com/a/pressatgoogle.com/googlebuzz/mobile-blog
Another location-centric phone application is Foursquare, which comes in versions for iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Palm. I guess the Foursquare folks are anti-Microsoft, so we WinMo users aren't at risk from this one. The purpose of Foursquare is to "check in" - which means divulging your location so the app can then tell your friends where you are.
http://foursquare.com/learn_more
Yet another similar application is Loopt, which "shows users where friends are located and what they are doing via detailed, interactive maps on their mobile phones. Loopt helps friends connect on the fly and navigate their social lives by orienting them to people, places and events."
All of these apps can be fun to use and useful, but it's important to think about the downside of constantly having your whereabouts known. And it's not just your own posts and apps that you have to worry about. If your friend comes over to your house and he tweets that he's visiting his friend, (insert your name here), and his location-aware app sends a map out to all his followers, those people now have your address.
For kids, the dangers are even greater - and they are often too naïve to understand that giving out information about where they are can put them at risk. With so many teenagers and pre-teens carrying cell phones these days, it's something parents need to keep in mind. Of course, location-awareness can also be used by parents to keep tabs on those kids. AccuTracking is just one company that offers real-time cell phone tracking services:
Google Latitude can be used to do basically the same thing, and it's free:
http://forums.wxpnews.com/messageview.aspx?catid=36&threadid=3345&enterthread=y
As for me and my household, we will keep our privacy!
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