Do you use location based services, such as Foursquare, Twitter, or Facebook? If so, you may start paying a price in the form of higher home insurance premiums.

Why? Because social media, geolocation, and location based services alert others as to your location. Specifically, people can figure out when you are or are not at home.  Social media companies like Twitter are trying to strengthen their location based services through acquisitions.

A website called Please Rob Me links Twitter updates of people who say they are not home to locations using Google Maps.

In light of such information available to the nefarious, insurance companies see using geolocation services as an increased risk. It should not surprise that they are looking into ways to build that higher risk into insurance premiums.

Darren Black of Confused.com explains:

“I wouldn’t be surprised if, as social media grow in popularity and more location-based applications come to fore, insurance providers consider these in their pricing of an individual’s risk. We could see rises of up to 10pc for people who use these sites.

Criminals are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their information gathering, even using Google Earth and Streetview to plan their burglaries with military precision. Insurance providers are starting to take this into account when they are assessing claims and we may in future see insurers declining claims if they believe the customer was negligent.”

If you use geolocation services, you should be aware that insurance companies see you as a higher risk.  Confused.com suggests taking the following steps to manage this risk.

1. Don’t put your home address or home phone number on social networking sites.

2 Don’t follow people you don’t know on social networks and use block others from seeing your profile if you don’t know them.

3. Disable or use judicially location-based services on Twitter and Facebook.

In addition, you might consider:

4. Disabling geolocation services on your browser.  Firefox explains its location based services and gives instructions on how to disable them here.

5. Waiting until after you come home to post updates about vacation.

6. Not asking your friends online whether they are on vacation, or how they are enjoying their vacation.

7. Limit who can see your posts.  By modifying your privacy settings, Facebook allows you to restrict who can see your personal information and posts.  You can do the same on Google Buzz and Twitter.

Of course, location based services provide many benefits.  They make search results more geographically relevant, help companies give tailored discounts and offers, help you find nearby services, and help provide security for pets, children, and the elderly.  The point is to be aware of the potential downsides of geolocation services.

Does anyone have other suggestions for managing this risk?  Do you think the risk of using location based services is overblown?

Douglas Y. Park
Twitter: @DougYPark