The Dutch developer Boy Van Amstel told the BBC News that the site was only meant to prove a point about the dangers of sharing information on the internet. The part where it tells anyone who might have less than stellar intentions towards your home when you’re out is just a side effect.
So are you in eminent danger of being robbed next time you leave the house? No, not unless you play the popular online game Foursquare, which is based on a person’s location in the real world. Playing Foursquare means having your location automatically updated on Twitter. Which allows people like Boy Van Amstel to know exactly when your house is empty.
“It started with me and a friend looking at our twitter feeds and seeing more and more Foursquare posts,” Van Amstel told the BBC. ”People were checking in at their house, or their girlfriend’s or friend’s house, and sharing the address – I don’t think they were aware of how much they were sharing.”
Mr. Van Amstel and his partners, Frank Groeneveld and Barry Borsboom took the next logical step, if their friends were broadcasting their addresses, and broadcasting where they were at all times, then their friends were in effect telling the whole world when they weren’t home.
www.pleaserobme.com took four hours to create. “It’s basically a Twitter search – nothing new,” said Mr. Van Amstel. “Anyone who can do HTML and javascript can do this. You could almost laugh at how easy it is.”
Even easier? Making sure that you, and your kids, don’t play location based internet games like Foursquare.
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