Back in December I blogged about why I will never use apps like FOURSQUARE that track and broadcast my exact where abouts and when I leave my home. Earlier this month a new website launched that shines a rather bright light on the perils of using FourSquare. Please Rob Me.com aggregates the public broadcasts from FourSquare users announcing they are no longer at their home, into one single stream on their website. I have a feeling this may be the thing that finally brings FourSquare to the attention of the media. Today Bubba the Love Sponge talked about it on his radio show. I’m sure its just a matter of time before Howard Stern picks up on it too. Prepare for an onslaught of news stories, reports and talk show segments devoted to the dangers of FourSquare.

Being robbed is the least scary of the possible outcomes. I can’t judge too harshly adults who use the service. Before I moved to Illinois I was very naive about sharing private information. Growing up in a small Wyoming town you expect everyone to already know everything about you. Within in a year of moving to the St Louis metro east area I had learned my lesson, the hard way. By simply being too friendly with a tree trimmer I ended up with a full blown stalker.

I can’t help but think about all the teenagers who are on FourSquare, Twitter and Facebook who are happily broadcasting their every move to the entire internet… oblivious to the dangers. Meanwhile their parents likely have no idea that their kids are divulging this information. With access to one or two social networking profiles you can easily determine the state and city someone lives in. From there its not much harder to find out where they work or go to school. Now throw in their favorite coffee shop or book store and you should be able to narrow down the neighborhood. Get a nifty app like FourSquare to provide you with a Google Map of all the areas and soon you will have a street and house. Now scroll through the users check ins and you can see what time they regularly leave their house or when they return home and what hours they are typically there alone. From here you can easily plan your robbery, rape, abduction, murder… or whatever it is weirdos on the internet think about.

If all this is so obvious to me, who lives pretty much in the here and now, why are more people not disturbed by this? Hopefully Four Square will get some much deserved scruntiny before we hear our first “Young girl raped and killed by internet stalker who used her Four Square info to plan a break in while she was home alone.” story.