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Most of this data is completely useless, because there's no way to tell where these users live, at least without a serious amount of stalking and sleuthing. Un

Most of this data is completely useless, because there's no way to tell where these users live, at least without a serious amount of stalking and sleuthing. Unless, of course, they've been geotagging their tweets from a mobile device. In which case it would then be trivial to look at their most frequent location, determine it's a residential one, wait until they're out, and head on over. Which is why I will never enable Twitter geotagging.

ojbyrne 17y ago
Even if their location is available, there's no way to tell if they live alone.
- wendroid 17y ago
  Knock! Knock!
- mrcharles 17y ago
  Twenty minutes to make sure no one is in the house followed by a quick peek through the mail box (or windows) will give you a pretty solid idea if they do, though.
  - lftl 17y ago
    Which also largely obviates the need of relying on Twitter to gather any information in the first place.
    - mrcharles 17y ago
      Sure, for added risk.
noodle 17y ago
all of this is data from foursquare, which is opt-in and does use geotagging. want to know the home address? check out the user's profile.
mrcharles 17y ago
Given that google acts as a phonebook, simply googling someone by real name has a good chance of digging up their address. I picked a friend in the US at random, simply knowing which state he lived in, and I found his phone number, address, and ZIP code. Also a handy link to google maps. People are no where near as isolated as they'd like to believe.
dangrossman 17y ago
I searched for my city, and found the most recent listing on the site. Clicked through to that Twitter user's profile, then to their website which was about yoga classes. On her yoga website, she lists her home address. It's in the WHOIS data of her domain too. Chances are it's not that rare to be able to get an address for someone that's connected enough to be tweeting their location all the time.
- sorbits 17y ago
  Does the web site also list class schedules? Because that is also a source of “when she is not at home”, as someone else already said, most people who have a job are out during the day, so finding “empty homes” is not exactly rocket science. Also, in addition to “empty home” you also want a place where no-one hears you if you break a window or similar, a place where it is easy to leave with the stolen goods without being noticed, and a place that has stuff worth stealing. Given the variables, were I a professional thief, I would scout for locations first, then find out when the residents were not at home second, which is probably fairly simple even without the use of Twitter.
  - josefresco 17y ago
    Take it even further. Scout the location, observe the 'regular' schedule (of leaving for work/school) and then use Twitter to make certain they are not close to home.
    - eru 17y ago
      You can't take too much time observing, since you will probably want a better hourly wage than working at Burger King when you are going to rob someone.
lftl 17y ago
Agreed. What would make this app REALLY insteresting is if it tried to automatically analyze all of a users geotagging, guess a home/work location, and then alert when the user is over an hour or two away.

ojbyrne 17y ago

Even if their location is available, there's no way to tell if they live alone.

wendroid 17y ago
Knock! Knock!
mrcharles 17y ago
Twenty minutes to make sure no one is in the house followed by a quick peek through the mail box (or windows) will give you a pretty solid idea if they do, though.
- lftl 17y ago
  Which also largely obviates the need of relying on Twitter to gather any information in the first place.
  - mrcharles 17y ago
    Sure, for added risk.

noodle 17y ago

all of this is data from foursquare, which is opt-in and does use geotagging. want to know the home address? check out the user's profile.

mrcharles 17y ago

Given that google acts as a phonebook, simply googling someone by real name has a good chance of digging up their address. I picked a friend in the US at random, simply knowing which state he lived in, and I found his phone number, address, and ZIP code. Also a handy link to google maps. People are no where near as isolated as they'd like to believe.

dangrossman 17y ago

I searched for my city, and found the most recent listing on the site. Clicked through to that Twitter user's profile, then to their website which was about yoga classes. On her yoga website, she lists her home address. It's in the WHOIS data of her domain too. Chances are it's not that rare to be able to get an address for someone that's connected enough to be tweeting their location all the time.

sorbits 17y ago
Does the web site also list class schedules? Because that is also a source of “when she is not at home”, as someone else already said, most people who have a job are out during the day, so finding “empty homes” is not exactly rocket science. Also, in addition to “empty home” you also want a place where no-one hears you if you break a window or similar, a place where it is easy to leave with the stolen goods without being noticed, and a place that has stuff worth stealing. Given the variables, were I a professional thief, I would scout for locations first, then find out when the residents were not at home second, which is probably fairly simple even without the use of Twitter.
- josefresco 17y ago
  Take it even further. Scout the location, observe the 'regular' schedule (of leaving for work/school) and then use Twitter to make certain they are not close to home.
  - eru 17y ago
    You can't take too much time observing, since you will probably want a better hourly wage than working at Burger King when you are going to rob someone.

lftl 17y ago

Agreed. What would make this app REALLY insteresting is if it tried to automatically analyze all of a users geotagging, guess a home/work location, and then alert when the user is over an hour or two away.