A website called PleaseRobMe claims to reveal the location of empty homes based on what people post online.
The Dutch developers told BBC News the site was designed to prove a point about the dangers of sharing precise location information on the internet.
The site scrutinises players of online game Foursquare, which is based on a person’s location in the real world.
PleaseRobMe extracts information from players who have chosen to post their whereabouts automatically onto Twitter.
Read more on BBC. The Christian Science Monitor also covers the story.