‘It’s intimidating’: Canadian social media influencer warns about posting while vacationing

Posting travel plans and pictures to social media can attract unwelcomed guests to your empty home.

When travel influencer Hannah Logan took a trip with a group of girls to Greece last month she shared a photo with her followers on Instagram highlighting the breathtaking beach views.

She tagged the beach’s location. Then something “unsettling” happened.

“When we go to leave and I open my phone and I open Instagram, I have a message from a random guy on the island who’s saying, ‘oh hey, I’m here too,’” Logan says.

Nothing escalated but she says the incident was an eye-opener.

“It’s intimidating…I’m thinking of my followers watching my stories, and as far as I knew, I didn’t have any followers of the island,” says Logan. “You know, the geotag anybody can click on that and see what’s going on in whatever area.”

“For someone who works in this industry, who knows better, that was definitely a reminder this is why you do not post in real time.”

A recent survey from Allstate Canada shows some people are more concerned about who knows their location than who knows their home is unoccupied.

“We spend a lot of money to go on vacation, so we want everyone to kind of see and share and celebrate with us anything that we’re doing,” says Bryan MacLennan, the chief operations officer for Skylar Security and Communications in Dartmouth. “But everyone knows when you’re not home and that can be a little concerning,”

MacLennan says there are simple things homeowners can do to protect themselves and their property

“You can get an alarm system,” he says. “Get cameras if you can. With social media, you can post when you get back. The other thing is you can also limit who sees it. So if you are heading to the cottage for a weekend and you know all of your family know that you’re going to the cottage every weekend anyways, just keep them as the ones that can see all of your social posts, as opposed to keeping them open.”

Sharing her daily life and travel is part of Logan’s job but she says she will take precautions moving forward.

“It’s more about planning and posting smartly. Share vacation and share where you are, just don’t share it in real time. And one of the things I found a big thing is just don’t geotag. People don’t need to know exactly where you are.”