How Internet detectives, and others, find out where you live

An explosion of people checking into social networks is being exploited by mobile application makers and private detectives, who say they can use… An explosion of people checking into social networks is being exploited by mobile application makers and private detectives, who say they can use people’s online chatter and photos to track them and find out where they live. I know where you live… a sometimes scary choice of words An array of social networks like Twitter, Foursquare, Twitpic, Flickr, YFrog, Gowalla, and Lockerz can provide such geolocation data, Kakavas said. Smith, who says he has recently been hired by journalists who want to use geolocation data in their research, says his work is for “honourable, legal purposes”. Regulators in the United States and the European Union have come out in force for new ways to protect people’s privacy online, but geolocation data on social networks seems to be at anyone’s fingertips without breaking the law. “We have geolocation information that the users knowingly and deliberately make public,” said Kakavas, who says he developed Creepy to show people how easy it can be for prying eyes to scrutinise their private lives.