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Re: [LUG] Problems with social networking: courtesy of the The Economist

 

> Henry Bremridge wrote:
>
> http://pleaserobme.com/

It is overblown.

Unlike the criminals who email me every day enmass, breaking and
entering requires physical presence.

At which point there are probably easier ways to establish if a house is
occupied than tracking down the owner on the Internet.

A quick glance out of the window, and I can tell you at least 4 of the
properties in my close are currently unoccupied, and that didn't require
a GPS enabled phone or the deductive powers of Sherlock Holmes. If I was
thinking about it everyday I could get better at this deduction. Of
course if you wander into our village and you aren't local, they'll
probably start muttering "incomer" and start sharpening knives just in case.

Now I'm sure there are new risks with this technology, but there are
also new benefits. Listened to a podcast recently where they discussed
how meeting people via GPS enabled cell phones applications could be
risky (I'll let you figure out what sort of meetings) and I'm sure it
carries some risks probably many of them old and well understood by
doctors. At no point did it occur to them that the same technology that
lets you meet up, also reduced many of the classic risks with such
situations, as it lets the police know exactly where you've been and who
(or at least whose mobile phone) you've been near. And I dare say other
aspects of such interactions are all logged - phone calls, text messages
etc. Okay not much good of you are victim number 1 of a serial killer,
but I expect it'll stop a lot of serial killers (and other crooks) at
victim number 1.

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