Social Network Users Have Ruined Their Privacy 308
Steve Kerrison writes "'There's little point in worrying about ID cards, RFID tags and spyware when more and more people are throwing away their privacy anyway. And the potential consequences are dire.' I've written an article on the dangers of social networks and how many users seem to forget just how public the information they post can be. This follows a warning sent out by the CS department of Bristol University, advising students that they risk lost job opportunities, getting in trouble with their parents and more, if they don't take care. The warning, however, really applies to all social network users, be they college students or over-zealous blog posters."
@Generation (Score:1, Interesting)
Welcome to the @Generation.
Re:@Generation (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Stupid is as stupid does (Score:2, Interesting)
Strange. When I seek for jobs I worry much more about employers not knowing me enough rather than they know me too much. And no employer will be bored enough to actually read every message in your blog to find your "most silly moment" before he decides whether to hire you.
This is bullshit. (Score:5, Interesting)
It is already happening. The company I work for was founded by two young entrepreneurs that grew up in the age where knowledge was free and they learned that masturbation won't cause hair to grow on your hands or your dick to fall off. They learned that the D.A.R.E. cop that told them the story of the young man who died from ONE hit from a joint was LYING. They realized that nobody else they grew up with believed this horseshit anymore either. They only care about your skill and your work ethic. As the younger generations start to take back this world it will become a better place to live because of the global community and available, simple worldwide communication.
Do not fear it. Embrace it.
Re:Keep in mind (Score:4, Interesting)
That's true - unless social networking is being set up as a sort of honey trap encouraging people to compromise their futures. Hence, I would not stress this difference as a dichotomy - but rather as two moments of the same phenomenon.
People are giving away their freedom within a now-corporate framework that encourages this kind of activity. Just remember that.
As with fidelity/client cards, purchase-rewards, and fast-tracking at airports, the web 2.0 is training us to surrender our personal lives for the most meager of rewards. This kind of surrender almost seems propaedeutic for a greater, involuntary loss of privacy. But then again, Americans have already lost their freedom to credit reports.
An example (Score:3, Interesting)
But reading the quote, one wonders who is this Andrew Jallon guy. Well, a quick google and you can see check out his discus and shotput attempts (not very good). PUBLIC real-estate tax records give a strong implication as to where he lives. And finally, Andrew Jallon's bigoted comments end up on Slashdot. Did he expect this? Should he have expected it. Should we all be paranoid about every post...lest someone take it and run?
Re:Social Networking is a dangerous idea (Score:3, Interesting)
I remember before there were consumer protection laws, and if you bought a defective car, too bad sucker. That was the way for years. Am I going to argue that all safeguards are an infringement? No. Am I going to argue that we're figuring it out? Yes.
Please don't apply simple "take personal responsibility for the fact the world sucks and hates you" rules. We can make it better, but we have to know what's wrong first.
It's nice once in a while to talk about what's right, but, yeah, that's not nearly as sexy and frightening.
Re:There's no there there (Score:0, Interesting)
Don't fear the day when they drag up the old mud and you have to stand at a podium or in front of a press conference, or across the desk from your boss and say, "Yes! I said and did that -- I also made up for it. And if you look at the bigger picture, I'm a more valuable person overall, far outweighing the small blemish in my history this mudraker is flapping." Don't forget that you did what you did because you were confident in the fact that there world had supplied you with an environment and a situation in which your behaviour was acceptable to yourself and to others. If you see that window of opportunity shrinking, then congratulations -- you aren't the same person you were before; your perceptions have changed. Either that, or you were having a panic attack, watching your freedom erode while your person developed, and you experienced a frenzy of mad behaviour like a rat in a corner. Rat on yourself. But be confident in who you are, including who you were.
Confidence is what drives markets, and if you want to market yourself effectively, you have to be confident in who you are. Loss of confidence is what's really driving down the economy in America, but information brokers are having a heyday. So if you don't find confidence in yourself, but you do have confidence in all of your demons, there's one other option: start storing information incriminating others in your blog or journal. Start being the one who keeps track of all the bad things people are doing. Rat on everybody else.
If you're right about all this, then one day you'll have a fortune in greymail. Start with these comments in this forum. Track down all of these anecdotes about RL/OL gone awry, follow up on all of them, every bit, and seal it in seperate manila envelopes marked "do not open til doomsday". But don't forget the number one rule of blackmail: if you're not ashamed, you can't be had. And since we've all been informed for decades, now, that shame is caused by shaming and that shaming is a component of abusive homes, we should know better than to be ashamed of ourselves, and that shaming others is abusive.
Extortion is far more worth worrying about than blackmail, but if you're afraid that just because you put your home address online, you're going to be made a target any more than if some psychotic walking down your street decides they don't like you because of the numbers on your door or the look of your vinyl siding, then what you're really talking about is some trend in dangerous psychotic people showing up in higher numbers online than in the everyday carbonspace world.
If that's true, than that is the final and sole crux of the matter, and the question no longer lies anywhere in the realm of "information" or "privacy" but really becomes about psychiatric treatment and deprogramming. So don't let history's most primitive confidence scheme rule your life: either invest in commodities, or go see a shrink. Otherwise, bad people will continuing bad things.
Re:so? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Social Networking is a dangerous idea (Score:3, Interesting)
Now I am sure that a legitimate operation like myspace properly notifies parents that their underage child wants to create an account and automatically grants the parent full access, so I am sure they will be sending me that information shortly.
Re:so? (Score:3, Interesting)
This isn't a problem, it's a generation gap (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:This is bullshit. (Score:3, Interesting)
I dunno. The guys you are talking about probably grew up in the 60s or 70s, when idealism was very strong. This current generation of young people is scarily conservative, but even worse, they seem to be corporate whores. I wouldn't expect many of them to rock the boat in substantial ways. Sure, they may have their dyed hair, tattoos and their genital piercings, but that's just the new conformity - it doesn't demonstrate actual rebellion or subversion. Even those idealists from the 70s sold themselves out pretty quickly. I think much of the younger generation is already sold out - they just stick to the corporate-accepted level of "flair" and naughty behavior they are allowed as long as they keep buying the products.
As an example, you mention drugs. When I was using marijuana, we protested for legalization, we had organizations to promote the truth about drugs. I don't see many kids doing that now. Instead of pushing to change the laws, they know they can get away with it if they are discreet with their usage or know the right people. In many ways it is regaining its "taboo" status, and is consumed with a wink and a nod, not in proud defiance.
I like what xkcd has to say on this subject. (Score:3, Interesting)
Feeding a troll, I fear (Score:3, Interesting)
Ignoring, more or less, your pugnacious tone, your argument seems to boil down to the claim that revealing passwords, PINs, etc., or things (such as your SSN) that are effectively used as such, is somehow equivalent to revealing the sort of personal information (sexual orientation, political affiliation, taste in music, and so on and so forth) that people might reveal on MySpace. And further, you somehow assume that anyone who does things that I won't do for you on demand must lack the "ability to reason in a logical fashion" or be "an utter idiot."
I of course beg to differ.
Your first point is clearly nonsense (a claim you can easily disprove by providing links to a few dozen publicly available MySpace pages with SSN's, bank account numbers, PINs, and the like).
On your second point I would claim that anyone who would reveal password-class information to a person like you, on an open web forum or not, would be the utter idiot. On the other hand, I have no qualms about telling you that I'm a fiscally conservative life-long registered Republican who voted a straight Democratic ticket in the last election because I'm tired of seeing our country run into the ground by a pack of clueless morons, no matter which party they ran under. I like classic rock and some modern stuff, but can't stomach more than a little rap or new age. And so on and so forth.
In case you still don't get it, the point of being "effectively immunized" is to not live as if you have any personal secrets that you wouldn't tell your boss / parents / spouse anyway. If you're going to prance about in undergarments that aren't gender appropriate, put up a web site detailing the whys and wherefores, and then if anyone tries to blackmail you by threatening to "out" you say "Oh good! Give them my URL while you're at it; I could use more page hits" and that is pretty much the end of it.
--MarkusQ