Give Up the Fight For Personal Privacy? 751
KlaymenDK writes "Over the last decade or so, I have strived to maintain my privacy. I have uninstalled Windows, told my friends 'sorry' when they wanted me to join Facebook, had a fight with my brother when he wanted to move the family email hosting to Gmail, and generally held back on my personal information online. But since, amongst all of my friends, I am the only one doing this, it may well be that my battle is lost already. Worse, I'm really putting myself out of the loop, and it is starting to look like self-flagellation. Indeed, it is a common occurrence that my wife or friends will strike up a conversation based on something from their Facebook 'wall' (whatever that is). Becoming ever more unconnected with my friends, live or online, is ultimately harming my social relations. I am seriously considering throwing in the towel and signing up for Gmail, Facebook, the lot. If 'they' have my soul already, I might as well reap the benefits of this newfangled, privacy-less, AJAX-2.0 world. It doesn't really matter if it was me or my friends selling me out. Or does it? I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter. How many Windows-eschewing users are not also eschewing the social networking services and all the other 2.0 supersites with their dubious end-user license agreements?"
maybe (Score:0, Funny)
secret identity (Score:4, Funny)
appropriate to this topic:
cat and girl [catandgirl.com]
mod parent up! (Score:3, Funny)
Goddammit, we have to remember what matters!
Take the opposite approach. (Score:5, Funny)
Add photos that you aren't in and tag them as you.
Then add backstory for them.
This photo was taken at my sister's friend's cousin's lesbian wedding in Monaco. That's me on lead guitar.
Since you cannot always hide information. You can always try to obscure the facts with the fallacies.
Amateur (Score:1, Funny)
I have removed my fingerprints with acid and have had facial reconstruction surgery. I dye my hair. I uninstalled windows and then burned my computer. I cancelled my phone then dug up the phone line on my property. I cancelled all other utilities and dug up the mains on my property. I moved my mailbox and house number to the neighbor's property. I pay the neighbor to act as my mail/home address firewall. I regularly kill my neighbor and take back the money. Inside my exterior house is another tinier house in which I live. Inside that house is another even smaller house in which I actually live. I also never agree to EULAs.
Re:If ignoring facebook disconnects you from frien (Score:3, Funny)
Well there's at least two other people who don't use facebook, the parent post and the moderator who gave it an insightful.
You'd think so, but actually the moderator is a regular Facebook user who just didn't know what the word "Insightful" meant.
Let me get this straight (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:5, Funny)
This photo was taken at my sister's friend's cousin's lesbian wedding in Monaco. That's me on lead guitar.
While your whole suggested "backstory" made me chuckle, the "lead guitar" bit was the cherry on top.
The big problem that came to mind is that, were I to try this idea, 80 people would leave Captain-Obvious-style comments on said photo:
"Dude, that's not you"
"Who is that guy?"
"OMG UR SOOOOO FUNY THATS NOT U"
"lol thats not you man!!1!"
"You crack me up, just like you did last Friday at that party you guys had at your place at 1234 W. Main St. in downtown Whoville, corner of Main and 1st (Main is one way going east...if you pass the Kwik-E-Mart you've gone too far). Have fun on your two week vacation during which time your apartment, unit 2E, which has no security system and a bedroom window that unlatches if you jiggle it hard enough, will be empty!"
Okay, maybe that last one was a bit over the top...but you know what I mean :)
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:4, Funny)
> Add photos that you aren't in and tag them as you.
>
> Then add backstory for them.
They'll still be able to tell those photos aren't you.
None of the people in them will have tinfoil hats on.
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:5, Funny)
Security by obscurity has never really worked. I predict it won't protect your privacy either.
--Sincerely, Anonymous Coward
Basically, We're Doomed (Score:5, Funny)
I decided quite a while ago that resistance was futile. Most details don't really matter, but it might be prudent to think about what would happen if you ever wanted to run for office or if the political winds shifted further to the right.
As for me, though, this is not a problem, because I love my country and especially that wonderful President of ours. God has truly blessed us to give us such intelligent, caring, and well-groomed leaders. My goal in life is to someday meet one of them so that I can adore him in person.
Re:How is this any different from the real world? (Score:5, Funny)
Actually, KlaymenDK, the hardcore privacy nut that posted this Your Rights Online submission, prefers 80s music, as you can see by browsing thousands of songs he has listened to recently [www.last.fm].
Re:Amateur (Score:3, Funny)
You call that anonymity? You, sir, are mistaken.
If I ever want to find you, I'll just go to the house with no numbers on it, no mailbox out front, and a lawn full of trenches where utility connections used to be, and will keep opening doors until I find the guy with no fingerprints, dyed hair, and a face like Jocelyn Wildenstein [google.com] sitting next to the burnt-out shell of a computer.
And if you're not home, it means you're probably out killing the neighbor. I'll either wait for you to come home after you're done hiding the body, or I'll go next door and find you there.
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:5, Funny)
I envision a Photoshop and/or GIMP plug-in to automatically add tinfoil hats to people in pictures...
Re:How is this any different from the real world? (Score:5, Funny)
80's music seems appropriate for a 34y/o, but I wonder if it distracts him when he's concentrating on a board game [boardgamegeek.com] or working on his 2004 VW Golf in his Copenhagen, Denmark, garage [trifive.com].
Re:How is this any different from the real world? (Score:2, Funny)
You sound like a lot of fun and someone with plenty of friends.
Re:What about Windows? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:I don't get it... (Score:3, Funny)
"Whenever I've ever heard anybody say anything like "their Facebook 'wall' (whatever that is), it's always been with a condescending "I'm too good for crap like that" tone."
i'll fix that for you. I don't give a crap about facebook because i'm anti-social and have a mental illness that makes me extremely happy to have as little human contact as possible. When i play video games online vs human opponents i avoid the in game chat capabilities. talk? to my allies or opponents? no thanks. even when there are strategic advantages to communication i STILL avoid it.
yeah, i post to slashdot, yeah, i even journal here, but the way people post here is almost like not interacting with fellow human beings. i write what i write here, mostly to read it myself.
i mean the mind does need to have things to think about, but one does not need real human contact.
i realize that for some isolation from other human beings can cause their minds to fail with mental illness. for the others like me it's a nice break from having to interact with people.
Re:Man are you on facebook? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Your privacy was eroded for you (Score:2, Funny)
it is sorta fun to make contact with old classmates and to laugh at ex-girlfriends who've really let themselves go.
But what if I never liked my old classmates and have no ex-girlfriends (yic)?
Then you fit right in on slashdot.
Re:Your privacy was eroded for you (Score:3, Funny)
It's the electronic equivalent of the hermit who lives in a decrepit house... filled with 1x10^32 empty beer cans carefully washed and sorted according to color.
Re:I don't get it... (Score:3, Funny)
Find me. You can only use my ""anonymous" screenname" as a starter.
You get $200 as soon as you call me. You have 5 hours.
You have a voicemail from me (I don't know if the caller ID will work. If so, it's a UK number, beginning +44 560nnnnnnn).
I'll email you to discuss the $200 ;-).
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:3, Funny)
well, that probably won't make the system any more secure than simply not having the post-it note in the first place. one false lead isn't going to slow down a determined attacker very much. however, if you plaster your monitor with hundreds of post-it notes... =P
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:5, Funny)
The NYTimes thinks I'm a 98 year old woman in Afghanistan, who makes less than $20K/yr as the CEO of her own company.
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:3, Funny)
Use the black cape, Luke (Score:2, Funny)
Don't use your personal details on line. The nom-de-plume is a long and honourable tradition. As a consultant it also gives me the freedom to be a little more, ah, technically honest than if I put my business name at the bottom of every email.
My friends and associates know who I am and how to find me (and I'm sure the appropriate three-letter-agencies do too).
But I certainly am not going to make it easy for every {insert-malfeasant-here} on the planet to get info on me. That's for my credit card and insurance companies to do :-(
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:5, Funny)
facebook... (Score:2, Funny)
Most people I know who "do" Facebook (including my wife, as it happens) seem to end up having their lives swallowed up by it. I waste enough time here on Slashdot, I don't need to make it worse...
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:4, Funny)
My friend created a false online persona for himself to use for these types of sites - Ethel Murgatroyd, an 80 year old, extreme sport fanatic, , gangsta-rap-performing, Barry Manilow-loving single grandmother supporting 25 dependents with a penchant for kittens, X-Boxes and Ak-47s.
You should see the confusion this causes in the directed spam that arrives at her email account!
Re:Your privacy was eroded for you (Score:2, Funny)
> An empty aluminum can weighs approximately a half-ounce (15 g).
10^32 of those cans weigh 1.5 * 10^30 kg
Let's put that in perspective: Weight of the sun: 1.9891 * 10^30 kg
That is one very impressive collection of beer cans.
Re:Take the opposite approach. (Score:3, Funny)
I did that for a while. Paid the bar bills with the "Don't leave home without it". Figured that I'd be able to track how much I was drinking in the month. And perhaps earn an airfare with my addiction.
The shock of looking at an empty wallet on a weekend is nothing compared to the sting of it being all there in black an white at the end of the month.
The logical thing to do would be to cut back on the drinking, but some how that never seemed to get raised as a coping strategy. I went to back cash.