A warning against over indulging information on the information super highway.

I’m a huge fan of social-networks and pretty much anything on the internet, but I know that these seemingly fun and friendly services can quickly turn dire if we fail to regard them with caution.

I’m sure many of you have been warned of the dangers of meeting people in person that you found online.  That is a legitimate concern, but not the one I’ll be addressing today.  Today I want to warn you about spilling too much information to people you don’t know, and show you how it can potentially hurt you.

I’ll be using Gowalla for my example. Gowalla is a GEO-Social-Networking platform available on iPhone and Android.  With it you use the GPS in your phone to tag the places you are at and what you are doing.  The goal is to visit spots that other people suggest in an attempt to see more of the world, and discover local hot spots that may have other wise gone unnoticed.  I like Gowalla, and any danger forseen is NOT in it, but rather how we use it.  Again this is all just cautionary.

But take a look at what happened the other day on Gowalla.

I launched the application to see the nearby spots that I was able to check into.

I noticed that 248 meters north, someone had listed their Home as a check in spot. I clicked on it.

I saw that one person had checked into “Home” near 931 W Jefferson Blvd Dallas, 22 times. I clicked on “People” to see who it was.

I then saw that Dina Light-McNeely lived there.  I clicked on her profile.

I then see that 4 hours ago she checked in at DFW Gate A23.  Also, if you look back at the previous image/page you can see that her previous check-in said that she was packing for DC.

So within a minute I learned that someone named Dina Light-McNeely living near 931 W. Jefferson Blvd. Dallas, just flew out of town [for at least a day] leaving her house presumably unoccupied.

Now its possible that she has a roommate or husband staying there.  But this is plenty of information for a thief to want to–at the very least–drive by case the joint.

This is kind of a long shot.  But its something to consider next time you think about telling the internet world where you’ll be every hour of the day.

Andrew Nemeth