No More #RKOI? Rich Teenagers’ Tweets Present a Security Threat for Billionaires

Billionaire Michael Dell has reportedly deactivated his daughter’s Twitter account over security concerns.

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Tony Avelar / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Michael Dell, chairman and chief executive officer of Dell Inc., speaks during the Oracle OpenWorld 2011 conference in San Francisco

Rich kids post the best Instagram pics, don’t they? It’s as if pictures of private jets and Rolexes were meant for square photos with a hipster tint. In fact, there’s now a whole blog dedicated to these instagram photos, featuring waterslides off the sides of yachts, personal bowling alleys and Versace gold-plated guns. But we may see fewer and fewer of these #RKOI (rich kids of instagram) photos in the future as their parents crack down on their Twitter accounts. That’s right: the rich kids are getting grounded.

This week PC mogul Michael Dell (worth a reported $15.9 billion) reportedly deactivated his daughter Alexa’s Twitter account because she was essentially broadcasting her family’s movements through social media. The 17-year-old’s status updates and Foursquare check-ins — not to mention a pic she posted of an invite to her high school graduation dinner with the time, date, and location of the event — were posing security risks, reported Bloomberg Businessweek.

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Dell spends over $2.7 million on his family’s security (according to regulatory filings), so no wonder he wasn’t thrilled to have his teenage daughter broadcasting her family’s whereabouts to potential thieves and kidnappers. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are undermining much of the hard work that security teams put into keeping celebrities’ and billionaires’ locations a secret. According to Forbes, Paris Hilton was robbed after constantly updating her Twitter account with her whereabouts, essentially letting any prospective burglars know when she would be out of her home.

So for now there will be no more tweets of Alexa Dell’s little brother Zachary enjoying a massive fruit spread on their dad’s private jet. (That photo has since been removed.) But you can be sure that there are other rich teens who will continue to make the same mistake.

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