Dangers of sharing too much property information online revealed

New research has highlighted how much information about a property can potentially be pieced together from publicly available information.

This may be useful for homebuyers researching a property purchase, but there are warnings that it can also be exploited by criminals.

An experiment by Compare the Market in collaboration with security brand Global Protect used a licensed investigator who successfully identified the home addresses of seven out of nine volunteers, despite four having private Instagram profiles.

Publicly available information can also be misused by criminals to build a picture of a property and its occupants.”

The fastest address was located in just 15 minutes, while in one case the investigator was also able to establish that the volunteer was away on holiday, confirming their property was unoccupied.

The slowest address took 18 hours to identify, with the first lead found after six hours.

Four out of nine property floor plans were uncovered, revealing the internal layouts of the homes.

The findings demonstrate how information scattered across social media and other publicly available sources can potentially be combined to build a surprisingly detailed picture of a property – from its address and internal layout to information about its occupants and routines.

Public information

Colin Crowden, intelligence director a Global Protect, says:  “Our experiment showed how individual pieces of publicly available information, which may seem harmless on their own, can gradually build a detailed picture when combined.

“One of the clearest findings was that information shared by friends and family often contributed just as much as an individual’s own posts. 

“Open-source intelligence techniques have many legitimate uses, including by journalists, investigators and security professionals.

“However, publicly available information can also be misused by criminals to build a picture of a property and its occupants. That’s why it’s worth thinking about how much information is available publicly and reviewing your privacy settings regularly.”