At the recent Digital Citizenship Symposium in Calgary (#DCSCal), we had many, many, MANY discussions regarding the fear that many adults face when opening up the big, bad internet to children in their classrooms. Some of these concerns are complete bollocks [shout out to my British ancestors], while others do have some real value in at least opening up the dialogue regarding catch phrases such as your "digital footprint" or "digital tattoo".
Enter the fantabulous site "Please Rob Me" that was shared by the equally fantabulous digital citizenship guru Alec Couros (@courosa in Twitterland).
Why do I love this site so much? It not only has the catchiest title to pique your curiousity, it also raises a valid point about the dangers of over-sharing on the web. And no, I'm not speaking of the category of over-sharing such as Facebook status updates that share the gory details of your recent breakup or how you really feel about your boss/coworker/manager (forgot you friended half the office? Awk-ward...) or the Twitpic of your latest drunken escapade...TMI anyone?
What this website deals with are all the little references we make to where we are in the world at any given time. Sure, it's fun to become the Mayor of Starbucks via Foursquare, and yes, I like to rave about all the great places that my awesome new-ish job takes me or brag to my snow-covered friends when I'm sipping pina coladas on the beach in Mexico. But the reality is, all these "Guess how much more awesome I am than you for being in _____ country today" status updates/tweets/foursquare checkins also share another important detail:
You're. Not. Home. Right. Now. Which means that your house could be ripe for the picking.
Sure, I've got an alarm system, a guard kitty, reliable friends and family to check my place and very aware-of-their-surroundings neighbours who probably help reduce the chances of my house getting broken into, but that's not really the point. This site simply points out the fact that you may want to tailor the details of your life online in all categories, and to just remember that many, MANY people can see, read and infer those peripheral details that you don't speak of (being away from home being just ONE of those peripheral details).
One great example I've recently witnessed via my own PLN on Twitter is just how many people list their location via their iPhones. You know what I'm talking about. Rather than listing their location as "Toronto" or "Calgary" or "Seattle", they use that garbly-gook number combo that looks like: 13-4201 - 28-2938. Did you know that when I see your profile on my own iPhone that that link becomes active? And did you know that if I click on this link it pinpoints the EXACT location in Google Maps that this refers to?
Not sure everyone realizes this. You might as well put a picture of your house along with directions to it under your "location".
So go ahead and post that cute picture of your toddler rolling in the leaves in the park on Facebook from your iPhone. Just make sure the street sign isn't shown in the background :)
Just some food for thought for your Thursday!
Vanessa
