If you’re reading this blog, you probably have at least one online profile, be it at Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, LinkedIn, or any of the myriad social networking web sites. You’re probably also aware that the combination of Web 2.0, geopositioning technology (such as GPS, Wi-Fi location databases, and cell tower triangulation), and the explosive growth of mobile data networks has taken social networking and the location-aware web to new heights. Facebook lets you meet people and make friends with those in your same town. Many Twitter-based services show you if any of your friends are nearby and looking to catch a movie or go to dinner. Google Maps helps you get driving directions and public transit information based on your current location, and Google Latitude even e-mails you when people you know break out of their ordinary routine and are nearby (e.g., friends who have the night off, or family visiting from out of town). LinkedIn helps you get a job in your area through the power of word-of-mouth. There are countless useful applications for a location-aware web, but at what cost?

Please Rob Me is a new web site trying to bring attention to the practice of publicly posting your location on the Internet and why it might be dangerous.

The way in which people are stimulated to participate in sharing this information, is less awesome. The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you’re definitely not… home.

The goal of this website is to raise some awareness on this issue and have people think about how they use services like Foursquare, Brightkite, Google Buzz etc. Because all this site is, is a dressed up Twitter search page. Everybody can get this information.

Public location data is nothing new — government documents have listed home addresses and other such details for years, and you can easily look across the street to see if your neighbors have their lights on or not — but the web adds time as a forth dimension. Never before has there been such vast public information in real-time about where people are located. The privacy concerns here are more interesting because this location data is volunteered by users. Is providing the world with up-to-the-minute information on where you are useful or dangerous? Should people be concerned about making location-specific data publicly available online, or is there nothing to worry about? Does Please Rob Me raise a legitimate concern or is it simply a publicity stunt? Perhaps there is an ethical question to be answered here, too: Do people realize what geopositioning information they are providing? Do you use any location-aware services and what are your thoughts?