Interesting article I stumbled upon. It firstly seems to be a problem in the USA, due to voter lists, but it’s possibly also a risk in other countries.
I decided to share, so you are all informed and can think about possible measures.
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I think limiting the amount of personal information about yourself is a good idea. No need to put your Alma mater etc… How do people feel about linking Airbnb to Facebook?
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It sounds like a right faff to me. People have been burgling houses long before Airbnb was invented - before the internet was invented.
There’s no need to go through all that malarkey with registered voters etc. There’s no need to use Airbnb either. (The local property appraiser’s site is where you can find out who owns every property - and the full name, no messing about).
Find them on Facebook or LinkedIn or Google+ … easy.
Also I know nothing about USA voters registers but I know that I’m not on one because I’m legally a ‘resident alien’ and thus not allowed to vote. I also assume that someone who lives in say New York but has a rental property in Miami is on the NY voters thingy and not the Miami one?
I don’t worry about internet security at all. I’m happy for anyone to look at my FB, Twitter, G+, whatever - but there again I’m not the sort of person who blabs to all and sundry on social media when I’m going away. (Or anything else very much).
Hopefully the next article of the same ilk will be burglars befriending (and bribing) local uber drivers to report back when they have a fare to the airport. That’s even easier. The uber driver gets the home address, the name and, if he or she is chatty, details of how long the person is going to be away. And even if they don’t, the airport terminal they are dropping off at often indicated whether it’s a long or short haul flight.
I should have been a criminal really…
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I don’t do FB. Talk about sharing too much info about yourself with the world! I think most robberies occur because the robbers know you have something valuable; cash, jewels, drugs, etc. Otherwise, going in blind to rob a house, what are they going to steal? Your TV? Not worth the risk. It certainly depends where you live. Our area is very low crime and many of our neighbors don’t even lock their doors at night.
Blockquote here’s how a bad guy with some technical chops could rob a house. They could find Airbnb listings in their area that were available for tonight — especially the “instantly bookable” ones, since that feature is usually used by owners who are on vacation. Then they could use this algorithm to figure out the address of a target house. Since no one will be home, the bad guy can rob the house without anyone knowing it was them.
I do think this could be a worry for off-site hosts, but not families on vacation. However, burglars have always targeted families on vacation. That was the premise of the popular movie Home Alone from my childhood. Recently, I’m sure burglars have used social media posts to figure out who is on vacation.
However, I don’t think most Instant Book properties are families on vacation; they are spaces dedicated exclusively to AirBnB. This makes me wonder how well these authors understand AirBnB.
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duly noted!
grabs swag bag
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{downloads pic of baxter and puts on my phone too} haha.
Yup. You can find I would say 80-90 percent of Air addresses and owners via each state’s department of assessments and taxation + land records.
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I agree (as to a “right faff” – not sure what that means but sounds like much ado about nothing and I like the phrase). Anyone who wants to spend that much time doing something, of course, would be able too – but how many Airbnb’s are really worth burglarizing? If they went to that much trouble, surely they would want more than a SmartTV. I have a separate property about 3 miles away. I do instant book. Some guests I never see though I do communicate with them about who/what/when/where – if someone wants to rob you that badly, they are going to do it.
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