By Juliet Speedy
Twitter and Facebook users be warned - detailing your day-to-day lives online could be a blatant invite to a burglar to come to your vacant home.
A group of former burglars in the UK admit to using social networking sites to research their targets, and experts warn it will be happening here.
A simple gloat on Facebook of where you're hopping on a plane to next may be all a burglar needs to target a home.
Living daily lives out loud on social networking sites has become the norm for many New Zealanders, but experts are warning it's dangerous and stupid.
"There's no reason why you should give lots of details about leaving your house unattended," says Netsafe's Martin Cocker.
"There's no real value to your friends in knowing that. I think people are putting way too much detail about their travel plans on social networking sites."
And many do say where they're going, for how long and post impressions while they're away. Sites like Twitter often have no privacy whatsoever, so anyone can log on and find out where you are.
Police are warning people who choose to give out information that it could end up in the wrong hands.
The head of the Christchurch burglary squad says burglars do their research before robbing a house, and they have no doubt that some burglars are using information gained online from social networking sites to target properties.
Nearly 70 percent of the former criminals in the UK said they gained information about their target's home and daily routine before committing a crime, and 12 percent admitted they used sites such as Facebook and Twitter to easily pinpoint the whereabouts of a target and how long they would be away for.
"Criminals have been pretty quick to pick up on the value of the web across the board, so I imagine that number will be getting higher and higher," says Mr Cocker.
The advice is if you're going to gloat, do it face-to-face.
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