Sometimes I think that technology makes it too easy for criminals and stalkers to do what they do. I recently stumbled on an article where someone had used Twitter to commit a robbery offense in the USA. An individual posted an article on Twitter saying they were visiting a friend and was looking forward to capturing some video footage to take back home.

This may seem innocent enough, but from that information you can deduce that the house is unoccupied, the fact that this Twitter user said where he was told the particular robber that the house would be vacant for a reasonable period of time. The Twitter account owner had a business website, where he registered the domain name using his home address, so the robber now had his home address and knew the house was empty. He then used Google Maps to find out where the house was and the person was robbed.

Using simple web services in combination with one another, someone can easily find out small pieces of information over a period of time, and build up a profile of what you do and where you go on a daily basis. I just followed a Tweet, which took me to an article about a new mobile phone application.

The mobile phone applicaion is called 'Recognizr'. This program uses the front camera to tell you all about a person's social networking history by pointing your camera phone at them. So you could be sat in a coffee shop minding your own business, while someone is anonymously finding out information from your social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. They could even view photos of you on your Flickr account.

Maybe I'm being overly paranoid, but it's things like these that makes me wonder, 'How many people put themselves at risk by using social media'. A few years ago a mobile phone allowed you to talk and text friends and family. Now, a mobile phone is a camera, an mp3 player, an instant messenger, an email client, a social media device and more.

I do believe that social media provides an improved method of communication over the Internet and if used correctly and for the right reasons it can be a beneficial tool for businesses and individuals, but I fear that people think what they type or post has no consequence, when they are very much mistaken.

If you can take anything away from this article then let it be a friendly word of caution about what you say and post to the online community. Remember - once something is put online it is very difficult to get rid of.