SPOKANE -- There's a new trend in online social networking where people post when they're leaving home and where they're going. One website argues that practice not only destroys your personal privacy, but also makes you a prime target for being robbed.

You'll notice it if you're a member of Facebook, Foursquare, or Twitter – some of your friends are starting to post where they're going, whether that be the local bar, grocery store or park.

The practice is called geolocative media, a trend that's growing in popularity. PleaseRobMe.com argues that participating is just opening yourself up to someone robbing your home.

The website aggregates publicly shared check-ins on a national scale. The website's creators say they aren't out to make you a target, but they are out to prove a point: you're giving up your privacy for the sake of social networking.

The website lists those check-ins as “empty homes” or “new opportunities” to poke fun at how letting everyone know where you are at any given moment, really only accomplishes letting crooks know when your home is empty.

Police say the trend is troubling.

“It's a little frustrating because I don't think people realize what they're doing when they're putting all of their information out on the internet,” Spokane Police Officer Mike McCasland said.

McCasland says criminals have 24/7 to sit around, look up your information online and then strike and using social networking sites to announce your whereabout is making you an easy target.

“You can go to a website and track anybody, get their information, get where they work, how much they make, the whole gambit, so people don't think about that when they're posting,” McCasland said.

Whether you're into geolocative media or not, the trend does beg the question: Are we just asking to be robbed?