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Sometimes I think the web is a living thing. I have had peculiar experiences that make me wonder if all the connectiveness has crossed some metaphysical line, and created an organism that can act on its own accord and overcome data barriers through sheer force of will.
Last December my Amazon account got hacked. I have no idea how. I don’t even know why, since whoever did it did not charge anything to my credit card of record, and once into my account they could have. Instead they used another credit card, and bought very little. Those peculiar details aside, I am still scratching my head regarding how it was done, since I never have cause to click on emails from Amazon, real ones or phishing ones. The good news is I lost no money. The bad news is that it took hours and hours to get it all straightened out.
See, I think whoever did this got the information some other way and not from any carelessness on my part or security weakness on Amazon’s part. I think they just got it “out there” somehow. It seems to me that part A of the web is somehow talking to part B of the web and we don’t know it.
Here is another example. Let’s say that I use Google to research diabetes after learning that a family member has received that diagnosis. The next day I will find ads for diabetes products being pitched to me on Facebook. Not Google ads, mind you. Facebook ads. Now, Google and Facebook are competitors. In theory they should not be sharing data on me. Their policies say they will not. Yet I do not think the arrival of those ads is an accident. The question I have is whether Google knows that Facebook is getting that data.
A weird experience has happened on Twitter too. There I once wrote a tweet about a product, but deleted it before I sent it. Within hours I was being followed by companies that made that product. That would be predictable if I had actually sent the tweet. Since I had not, it was spooky. Is Twitter following every keystroke I make?
I am not a conspiracy nut or anything, but I find myself wondering if far more is going on with our data than anyone admits.
Where the web is concerned, I long ago decided that I would assume anything I wrote or posted would be fair game for copying, etc. As my mother used to say, never put it in writing if you want to keep it private. So I follow that policy myself, and also opt out of the more intrusive options on places like Facebook. I can live without the world being able to locate me every minute, ya know? I clean out cookies. I run regular virus and keystroke logger scans. I even read privacy policies, but suspect they are saying things I am not understanding most of the time.
But when I experience things like those above, they suggest the boundaries between companies are very porous, and that data and information about me is freely circulating even between competitors. I can control what I write, but I can’t control who follows my searches and feeds them into a database. Then I wonder if any of my privacy settings matter, and whether there can ever be anything like privacy on the web these days.
Do you mind the degree to which using the web means losing control over your privacy? Or do you figure it is just the cost of having the web’s convenience?
Can people learn a lot about you on the web, or do you limit the personal stuff?
If you learned someone somewhere was tracking the books you read from your web posts and purchases, and compiling a profile on you, would it bother you?
It does bother me that I’m putting myself out there too much, but then I think I’m one among billions, chances are no one will notice me.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 2:58 am.
Most policies talk about collecting data in the aggregate–which is in the billions, and each one of us is a speck. I tell myself this is the worst that is happening, but then these odd things happen and I wonder.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:28 am.
I don’t care. I don’t have anything to hide, I don’t respond to anyone but my mother, who is the one to pay my bills. I just really don’t care. They want to track my info, build a profile, go ahead, I couldn’t care less. I don’t limit my exposure all that much. I do try and not say online things I wouldn’t say to a group of acquaintances, which is hard sometimes, because I REALLY like making comments about people, including people I go to school with, but I’ve been policing myself with that so I won’t post about my professors and classmates online much
Even if THEY’RE not following me or are my friends on FB, you never know how may see those posts.
But all I care about are my personal opinions, really. If they want to know my purchases, research, tastes and make a profile and try to guess what I might want to buy, have fun and good luck. I’ll LOVE to see their add for “African Unicorn”, “up for adoption sign”, “sociopaths”, “smallest cities population”… just some of my latest researches…
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 4:33 am.
There are lots of people who think this is a generational thing–that young people don’t see it as any kind of problem, so you seem to confirm that. Those of us who did not grow up with this get spooked more easily, I guess.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:30 am.
I live to serve. Or, in this case, to confirm
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:49 pm.
I wonder if they used your account to get pat geographical restrictions on certain purchases. If you read the fine print on many websites you’ll see that they use and sell your information for profit and to customize ads. That’s why two people can google the same thing and get different results based on what google thinks you’re interested in. As a learn more about these things I get angry. Even though I love the nook and kindle I won’t buy them because of information they gather. Why should others get rich off my info! I’ve had a stalker in the past so the amount of info collected online and from phone apps is at times disturbing. If you don’t believe me search your name on spoke.com and read the place they gather their info from.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 6:41 am.
Sorry the site is http://www.spokeo.com
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:20 am.
They don’t have a single thing on me — ’cause I’m not American. I don’t think Brazil is all that data gathering…
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:52 pm.
It’ll get there eventually
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 4:35 pm.
I run scans all the time, and it is amazing how many cookies to collect data have been stuck on my computer even in a day. So I guess it could well have been these third parties who followed my Google searches, then sold the info to whoever put up a fB ad. And speaking of getting different results on Google—I think that is horrible. When I go looking for info, I don’t want Google feeding me what it thinks I want to find.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:32 am.
This is an interesting video that talks about how the searches are customized http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dP3fsXAADAo
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:36 pm.
I’s why I’m extremely careful as to what I post on Facebook. I post nothing personal and I make sure I keep my settings on private. I’ve always been a big believer of be careful as to what you put out there because someday it’ll come back and smack you in the face. I do find it intrusive and creepy if they keep track of my purchases, what I read and whatever research I’m doing at the moment. But because of conveniece we have to expect certain intrusion. I just make it as difficult as I can for them.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:12 am.
My only presence on FB and Twitter is as the writer Madeline Hunter. I have no personal stuff there unless MH posts it. No personal friends and family, etc. Now, if any of these companies are doing stuff with my email–and I am not convinced they are not— my privacy is totally screwed, lol.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:34 am.
I once changed my age, hometown and relationship status on FB just to mess with these programs that think they know me. It was interesting to see the demographic quagmire it created.
Speaking of stealing info/identity, I was on a plane Saturday and saw a boarding passenger holding her copy of Ravishing in Red. When I asked if she was enjoying it, she replied. “Yes. Are you the author?” Now I was tempted to say “yes” and steal your identity to see what would happen next but I didn’t. Instead I told her I was a friend of yours. Regrettably, no hi-jinx ensued.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 7:36 am.
How cool that you saw the book in someone’s hands. That has only happened to me a few times in all these years, but I have gotten reports like this.
I enter as little of the personal data in FB, etc as permitted. I lie about some of it, I will confess. I do that on surveys, too—another way companies make money off us without compensation.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:37 am.
For the longest time I held out on shopping online. I didn’t want to give my credit card info, but the convinence won out. I know it isn’t as easy, but anyone could steal my info, not just online scammers, but anyone that wanted to go through my mail or any one at a checkout counter. So, I gave in and now I shop online all the time, and knock on wood, but I haven’t had any problems. The only thing I have changed is the way I use Facebook. When I first signed up I would post pictures of anything including my kids. I don’t do that anymore. I don’t want those images used for anything other then what they were intended.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:38 am.
I was never worried about the security of using a cc online because I knew my liability was limited. And like I said, for some reason whoever hacked my Amazon account did not even use my cc. But, man, I had no idea how much hassle it would be to clean that account up. If it had been just about any other company, I would have closed it for good instead.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:38 am.
I am one of those people who give very little data. This is my only blog and I don’t FB or any other social network. I have one credit card that I use online the others are used for local purchases.
I am sure that online data tracking has a lot of data on me so compiling the books I read really doesn’t bother me. I was very surprised when I asked my public library and they do not have a list of what I check out.
I think complete privacy is a thing of the past.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:40 am.
I think libraries have made it a point NOT to keep a list of what we check out, so that if any government agency comes asking for such a list, they can honestly say they don’t have any. There was a big to-do about such requests a few years ago, and librarians were really upset about it.
I don’t expect complete privacy. I just want to know that this wonderful web has not gone HAL on us, lol.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:40 am.
I realized a few years ago that privacy is largely a lost thing, especially for anyone with a public face of any kind. I am careful about certain kinds of information, about passwords and those kinds of things. In terms of writing about life in public, I speak of many things, but obscure identities to some degree, which I started as a young mother blogging about my life and family and writing life.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:59 am.
Yeah, sort of “details have been changed to protect the innocent” posting is the way to go, I think.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:42 am.
I try to limit access to my information.. I’m pretty darn boring anyway..
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:00 am.
I try to as well. It is getting harder. Even drilling down on the privacy settings at some sites is a chore. Then they arbitrarily reset them without telling you. Fortunately I belong to a few groups who have people who are good at alerting others to that kind of thing.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:43 am.
That is spooky, Madeline. I haven’t noticed things like that and haven’t had any accounts hacked. But I am very careful about what goes into the computer.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:00 am.
Getting hacked was so odd. And they bought all of $300 worth of stuff. If you were going to go to all that trouble, wouldn’t you spend more and go for broke while it was still undetected? Very strange.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:45 am.
Congratulations on the success of “The Surrender of Miss Fairbourne!” That is awesome. Now, about the internet stuff. I don’t like how I’m being watched. I know that I am, but I try not to think about it too much. I am normally a very private person, and don’t believe in everybody knowing every move I make. I think of it as a give and take though. I believe that local grocery stores do the same thing, in a way. I noticed that at one store in particular when they hand me my receipt they give a coupon. That coupon is for something specific that I purchased in the past, so I know they somehow keep tabs on what an individual buys. Ugh. I’m afraid the days of total privacy are long gone.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:08 am.
When our local store went to using those cards that give you discounts, there was a big objection to how they also were tracking purchases. Data is king today, but I’m not convinced all this data is improving anything. It is just being collected and being used to give some factual underpinning to what companies did intuitively before.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:47 am.
Boy, is this a hot button topic for me.
Do I mind the loss of my privacy? Yes!
Do I count the wonders of the web as part of the cost of that loss? Yes.
Am I careful what I reveal online? Yes. As careful as I could/should be? No.
Does it bother me to know that someone is tracking my keystrokes? Yes. I read Brave New World and 1984.
It’s not engaging in off-the-wall conspiracy theory if it’s true.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:27 am.
How good to know that I am not some nut, lol.Or if I am, that I am not alone.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:48 am.
The spokeo website had my address with google maps showing my door! I was soooo mad!!!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:45 pm.
I didn’t know about this site until today. I went to the spokeo website, plugged in my name and had a freaking panic attack. Name, address, map to my house with a picture. So thanks Archer, for mentioning this site. I’ve taken myself and husband and children off.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:20 pm.
You’re welcome. I also flipped when I first saw the map to my house.
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 4:11 am.
It took me forever to do my banking on-line and now I can’t imagine writing checks anymore.
As far as FaceBook I limit my personal information. I do not do apps or anything that asks for anything personal. And the only pictures I post are ones of adult family members or my dog. Never my grandkids. DH is very suspicious of people I’ve met on FB and he keeps telling me not to tell anyone anything.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:28 am.
The only reason I won’t do online banking is because I assume it is a major pain to switch banks after it is set up. So I still write paper checks. I am sure the day will come when that is not allowed anymore.
As for FB—don’t get me started. I hate how the kid that runs it thinks he has a right to all the info he wants to collect.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:49 am.
Not a fan. I don’t have much personal info out there—that I know of (I have children who must constantly be cautioned about being too forthcoming!)—and resent the intrusiveness of it all. The convenience of the internet, especially for research, is lovely on many levels, but like all things, there is a dark side. I still write checks, letters, thank you cards (how tacky to send an email!), and the like. God help us all if the power ever goes off line for any length of time!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:35 am.
It is like writers who say they couldn’t write because the power went off. Um, paper, pen?
People have no idea what is out there on them. I am astonished when I find what is out there on me, and I am very careful.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 9:51 am.
I am not overly paranoid, companies have been collecting data on everyone for years: credit card purchases, discount reward cards at a store tracking your patterns and spending habits, etc. This is another medium for collecting it. I did install a plugin in my browser that automatically deletes all cookies from ad networks and other marketing tracking companies. I mostly did it because there is one ad network that kept popping up even after I blocked pop ups… I got ticked off at it and spent an afternoon finding out how to eradicate it from my life.
For the most part, I keep really personal stuff off various sites. I figure if they are not things I won’t share with complete strangers, it doesn’t need to be posted for strangers to read.
I had a friend who was all irked about her privacy online and how it was invading her life – but would fill out every contest entry that came to her, provide her SSN number at the doctor and dentist, answer surveys on the phone, on a subscription card and online – and give them way more info then her Farmtown game playing would obtain otherwise.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 10:54 am.
ooo, I want the plug in. I am getting tired of having to empty all my cookies to get rid of the tracking cookies.
Yeah, some people don’t realize that every survey,etc, is collecting data that they hold onto. I refuse to do them now. Mostly I began refusing when they felt free to use up my time for free. I explained to one guy who tried to convince me it was for the good of mankind, hey, you are getting paid and your company is getting paid. I’m the only one working for free!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:45 am.
What gets me are the public computers that people do all sorts of business and accounts on and don’t monitor what their kids are in or doing….they don’t realize or care what is going out into the business mainstream or to others. I keep paperwork on all transactions whether banking, etc. because I don’t trust computers — they are only as good as the programmers and the people who input or deal with the data…the issue with hackers- don’t even get me going on that subject….and copyrighting — people don’t care about that for the most part…your mother was right – if you don’t want it repeated don’t write it!!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 10:57 am.
Mom was a smart lady
Street smart, if you know what I mean. She taught us that long before there were computers.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:46 am.
You would be surprised at how much of your personal info goes out there with every keystroke
Yes, Twitter/Facebook ‘records’ words you type even before you hit “Enter”. This is a very simple program that most search engines have as well. It is rudimentary and my 14-yr old son has built web pages with this program to monitor what words are being typed on his sites even before the poster has hit enter, or they hit delete before they entered in info.
Also, your bank sells your information. Every bank does it regardless of the documents you signed to have them not to.
My ex-husband works for Johns-Hopkins but contracts with the Dept. of Defense in IT Security. He does ‘black ops’ projects and cannot divulge a lot of information but he has told me that you need to change your password every 2 weeks, make it a minimum of 10 characters long with random numbers and symbols in order to be safe from hacking.
Every time you click on an ad, or even if a banner ad is displayed on a website, you are being tracked. In fact there are some websites, Amazon included, that have ‘invisible’ banner ads so they can track where you search and go. Basically a lot of websites have ‘invisible’ characters and fields that will take data.. if your cursor hovers over an image, even if you don’t click on that image, that data is collected. For example, my cursor hovered over a butterfly tattoo on Amazon once. Then when I went on my Facebook account a lot of banner ads regarding tattoos showed up. I don’t have a tattoo, never had one and have never searched for one. But the fact that my cursor hovered over that image, then information was stored and transmitted in less than a second to Facebook and other sites that contract with Amazon.
These programs can send information of who you email, contact, etc.. in less than a second. The programs are that sophisticated and that fast.
However the same goes for when you use a debit card, rewards card, etc… all of your actions are calculated and sent to other sources.
This has been happening in Europe for years when the UK and Norway were the first to come out with SmartCards (debit cards) in the 80s.
Big Brother is here to stay as my ex puts it. He has been here but we just never realized it until lately when the population of computer geeks has increased exponentially. When you write a check, to whom you wrote it to goes into a database. My sister works for a major bank and types in information off of paper checks into databases after they are garnished. So even those that choose to not do ‘online banking’ have their spending habits tracked as well.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:02 am.
Okay, now I am thoroughly freaked out! Thanks for the info. I think!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:48 am.
I think people who feel they have nothing to hide should consider whether that would always be true. By which I don’t mean they might wake up tomorrow and find they’ve become child molestors — but that they might wake up someday in a world which prohibits things that are currently part of the freedom we take for granted. Or in a world that suddenly wants to intern all people who share some characteristic. It’s happened before and by exposing ourselves online we’re making it even easier for it to happen again.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:11 am.
I am trying to wrap my brain around how we got to the point where companies, banks, etc, feel they have the right to do this. And if some are doing it just because they have the tech capability to do so.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:50 am.
I really wonder what the men in black think about me, sometimes, because not only do I do searches for things that personally interest me, but also for character and historical information. So one hour it’s Star Wars figures, and the next hour it’s bomb-building in the early nineteenth century, followed by small pox and finally film score composer Hans Zimmer. *g*
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:31 am.
Maybe if the searches are all over the board it gives the web a headache and they leave you alone
The ads pitched to you must be very interesting.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:51 am.
Lots of penile enlargement ads. I kid you not.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:43 pm.
Blame light sabers
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 4:36 pm.
LOL. Or they think I’m a guy who lives in my mom’s basement for “personal” reasons.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:39 pm.
I have to admit, I miss privacy! I don’t necessarily want people to know that I read the article on Kate Middleton’s first royal speech. Not exactly a threat to my personal security, but not something I like to advertise.
I have many friends who write erotica, and I purchase their books. But I don’t necessarily want my boss to google me, and discover my recently-searched amazon books. Seriously, there’s a sight where you put in someone’s email address, and it will show you the books they searched on Amazon.
I do have a facebook account, but I don’t post pictures of my kids on the internet. Ever. Anywhere. That means blogs, or facebook, or twitter. Sometimes they slip through because of a family member. I even use pet names for them, rather than their real names. I’ll let them decide how much they’d like to reveal of themselves when they’re mature enough to make the decision.
I do believe it’s a generation quirk!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:53 am.
Ok, how does a site get hold of the books I bought on Amazon??? That is outrageous.
I think it is wise to keep one’s kids off the public sites. There are too many weirdos out there, and it is very easy to figure out the town where someone lives.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:25 pm.
Spokeo used to show your most recent amazon searches when you searched by the email address (as long as that was also the email you used for amazon.) It was listed under, “shopping sites.”
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 10:07 am.
Just wanted to add that this is one reason why I don’t pay my bills online. No way. Never. And have auto-deduct for things? You’ve got to be nuts. No way am I giving some corporation permission to go into my bank account and take money owed. I decide who gets paid, when, not the person I owe money to.
I know. I know. It’s easier. And you never have to pay late fees. But I can’t allow any business to wield that much power if I can help it.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:22 pm.
Claudia, good for you! I signed up for autopay with my mortgage and one month they took it out twice. It was their mistake and not mine but when I called them about, they just shrugged and said, “There’s not anything we can do about it now.”
I’ll NEVER sign up for autopay again. EVER.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:31 pm.
OMG!! I KNEW it!! I knew this kind of thing would happen. It’s like giving some stranger your wallet and telling them, “Only take what you think you should have.”
!~!-!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:13 pm.
It is even worse than that. In theory they can’t take out unless you authorize. But ebay, for example, will piggyback an amount they consider overdue on an amount you authorize and it goes through. Lots of complaints about that.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:26 pm.
Madeline, I once partially filled out a form online and deleted it before I entered it and they emailed me right away, which really annoyed me. I was determined to never again fill out any form online.
It IS scary. I think companies should be more upfront about what information they collect and how they get it.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:30 pm.
They claim to let you know in those privacy policies, but they are full of loopholes, especially regarding “third parties.”
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:27 pm.
I limit my personal info as much as possible. I think that once you get sexually perverted prison letters and hate e-mails, it changes how you look at what kind of information you want out there about you. I only have family and very few friends on my personal facebook page. I’ve gotten into such a habit of calling Mr. G Mr G in public, that during a conversation with Julia Quinn last year, she asked me if we’re really formal people or if we ever call each other by our given names. I didn’t even realize I was calling him G until she pointed it out. Then I realized that a lot of people I’ve known for years and years don’t know his name.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 12:35 pm.
lol
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 1:48 pm.
I think your calling him Mr. G is charming. I never doubted why you did it.
My husband is just DH. I don’t think many know his name in the writing community.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:29 pm.
It is scary. I’ve used spokeo to remove information from the net. I just checked this morning, and for whatever reason, they have me listed as living at my father-in-law’s house. I’ve never even been to the house, but that’s not relevant to the topic. I’ve removed the listing.
I stopped posting pictures of my kids on fb ages ago, and I rarely use their names – they have nicknames.
Conversely, I’ve a sister who has at least 2 blogs, and posts nearly EVERYTHING about her life there and on facebook. IMO, she does it because it gets her attention that gives her some kind of sick fulfillment. Her boys are going to HATE her when she’s older because much of what she posts is about their health problems. I stopped reading them AGES ago because she was lying about their problems, too. It’s just so sick.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 1:08 pm.
The spokeo site makes me so mad!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 1:46 pm.
Me too! Then, I started looking under my maiden name – 1 more link popped up. I haven’t lived at that address in nearly 20 years!! Seriously, where are they getting their information?!!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 2:50 pm.
My cousins name sounds like my dads so it was listed as his alias lol
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 4:42 pm.
I am thinking I had better not check out this Spokeo site. I’ll probably have a fit. Do they let you delete right there?
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:30 pm.
You have to make a copy of the url to, search for the page to remove the listing, provide an email address, type in a code, receive an email, and click on the link in the email. Then, the information on their site disappears. Oh, and they only let you use do it so many times during the day (3, I think).
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:01 pm.
LOL, something similar has happened to me, too, because my sil’s name is so similar to mine – she just has one less A in her name. People think she’s me – like I don’t know how to spell my own name, lol.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 8:09 pm.
Oh, I know there are ‘spies’ everywhere. Quite honestly, that is a reason why, even if I loved them more than life itself, I would never even DATE a member of any royal family or a celebrity of any sort (music, screen, sports,etc.) simply because the media takes it as their right to dig into anything and everything about you. It’s no longer considered stalking because it involves someone famous. Mama bear that I am, if I saw someone snapping pictures of my children from across a street with those zoom-ish lenses, I would end up being arrested because I would take their camera and likely throw it into the road or beat them with it. I don’t know how they deal with it…the UK Princes and any other royalty, the celebrities, etc. The celebrities get in trouble for trying to maintain privacy and the stalking fools don’t get even a slap on the wrist. It’s crazy… If they are on the ‘red carpet,’ at an interview, etc. that’s one thing, but camping out near their home to catch a glimpse without make up and in grungy clothes is something else–
Then you have a the tracking cookies, etc. It’s the same thing, really, just in a sneaky way online rather than in your face with a camera. Both are wrong, but it’s creepy when it’s duplicitous with a friendly wave motioning you over, only to stab you in the back as they steal data from you.
I definitely do think it’s a generational thing. Somethings that my daughter will post about drives me nuts, but she is starting to learn that old adage, if you don’t want people to find out, do not put it in writing. Many employers look at social websites now, before hiring people. If they find things that they do not feel will properly reflect their company, they won’t hire that person. Now that she has a child of her own, she is really starting to see why I harped on her so much and that I’m not paranoid, just cautious.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 1:45 pm.
I assure you that companies and organizations of all kinds check out the web to get a perspective on a possible hire. I have done it, to fill in some blanks. I am amazed at what some people have on the web about themselves, posted by themselves.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:32 pm.
I have a friend from Lebanon who I met as a “Jason” then he told me his name was actually “Hassan(sp?)”. Now here’s the thing — I call him by his real name but I don’t know how to spell it in emails texts, etc. So I did a couple of searches in Google.
Now I freak out because of some of the Google info I tapped into trying to get the correct spelling and I wonder if I got myself on some Homeland Security watchlist just trying to learn how to spell my friend’s name without looking like an idiot by asking him(he signs all his letters Jason but he told us that Jason is the Americanized form of his name and I know it is a sign of true friendship that he asked us to call him by his real name). I still don’t know how to spell his name — any help appreciated. So, yeah, besides the information miners online, there is Big Brother. . . .
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 1:50 pm.
Now you have me thinking I got all my students on some watch list by making them do a work sheet on Islamic art. Uh oh.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:34 pm.
I’m sorry to worry you. It’s probably just my paranoia.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:44 pm.
And, Madeline, congratulations!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 1:50 pm.
First, let me clarify that I work in IT (information technology), so that might explain where I am coming from a little, but anyway…
Intellectually, the loss of privacy bothers me, but I also know that there is nothing I can do about it. The thing to be most concerned about is how careful you are with passwords. Make them as secure as you possibly can, and don’t feel bad about having to write them down. The likelihood of an online account being hacked is significantly higher than the likelihood of someone physically stealing your password post-it from your desk. I wouldn’t carry them around in my wallet, but otherwise you should be fine.
The reason that I stopped worrying about online privacy years ago is because I realized that in the modern, digital age, we have practically no privacy anyway. There are corporations in existence whose entire purpose is to collect and parse individual user data collected from credit cards, debit cards, and bank purchase lists, and your credit card (etc) companies sell this data to them, fairly. Then the federal government and other businesses buy this data from those businesses and use it to make decisions about what kind of advertising or information to send you. They aren’t even doing anything illegal.
Internet-wise, Facebook uses your information to help sell more lucrative adds. For instance, they might sell an add to an insulin manufacturer and offer to show that add exclusively to people who might have diabetes because they have discussed diabetes on their Facebook walls or are the right age/sex to be likelier to have diabetes. But even more telling is that there are companies who do nothing but make and sell online adds and online add information. In particular, doubleclick.com collects data (usually with cookies) and uses it to decide which adds to post on every website you visit. The add space on Yahoo.com or cnn.com or whatever isn’t sold to Lane Bryant or Sears but to doubleclick. Doubleclick is the company selling the adds (and collecting a lot of data) and then doubleclick’s algorithms decide which ads you will see based on where you shop and what you appear to like.
The entire purpose of this is not to steal your information, it is to sell you stuff. Companies want to make money. In some cases, I love this sort of stuff – Amazon uses data of both your past purchases and the searches you make on their website (even if you don’t buy whatever you searched for) to send you e-mails about thinks like romance novels going on sale or this new coffee maker they have for sale. I love that, because I already buy that stuff and now I know even more stuff about what I already like to buy. It’s the same with the grocery store discount cards – I don’t care that the store knows what I buy. I like it when they send me coupons for the stuff that I already buy!
Plus the credit card companies know anyway and they sell the data to Choicepoint or other information firms and those guys sell it to everyone else anyway, so you might as well stop worrying… Or start dealing only in cash.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 2:53 pm.
Oh, and I also want to add that I do agree that you should be cautious what you post on social networking sites, as in – how much personal information do you want online. The other posters are right, employers definitely do web searches on potential (and even current) employees and quite a few people have been fired over things they have said. If you want to complain about your employer or talk about the socially outre things that you like to do, create an anonymous blog or make sure you have your privacy set to “friends only” so that the Googling bosses cannot see those things.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:14 pm.
I still think I should be able to opt out if I want to. Even if it is just because I feel like it. I don’t think that the desire of companies to make money off me should give them permission to sell information on what I buy or browse. Unless they want to give me a cut? I mean, I know my grocery card is tracking me. I don’t know if they are then selling that data to other companies. If they are, I should be told, so I can avoid using it if I want to.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:40 pm.
Unfortunately, the laws are not in your favor in that case. Really, the only way to opt out of the tracking and data aggregation is to stop using the web and to change to a cash-only lifestyle, which is difficult to do. I agree that it sucks and intellectually I know that it feels wrong, but I also unfortunately can admit that I haven’t the power to change the laws in relation to this issue, so I try to comfort myself with the fact that I am one blip in the massive data mine and no one individual really cares that much about me in particular.
Posted on March 20, 2012 at 1:08 pm.
You know, it doesn’t spook me, for many of the same reasons B and Monica gave. I just don’t care. First of all, having maintained my own database briefly for a while, I know the sheer volume of this info and how nothing comes of most of it, because there’s just no time or money to parse it all. And as Monica said, all they’re using it for is to sell me things, and since I’m mostly not buying, they can target ads toward me all day.
Also, I’ve seen how imperfect that system is. Every time Amazon tries to sell me my own books (based on my going in to see the rankings), I crack up. Or they’ll try selling me something crazy that was an offshoot of something completely different that I ordered.
I just figure that the info is out there if they really want it, so there’s not much I can do about it.
But it drives HUBBY crazy. *G*
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:02 pm.
I think it’s hilarious that Amazon tries to sell you your own books! But it does show the relative anonymity of the system. It’s not like there is a person sitting there at a desk going through millions of records and deciding who to send what add to. It’s all algorithms and automatic software. Otherwise, why would they try to sell you your own books?
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:15 pm.
I know!!! Always cracks me up.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 3:56 pm.
Amazon has never done a good job of pitching to me based on my browsing. B & N is ever worse. Since I buy all kinds of stuff on Amazon, I can see how outdated data gets used forever. The implementation of the data use is pretty crude still.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 5:41 pm.
My amazon got hacked last fall too. Someone ordered $250 of lady bugs and a case of speckled dick. Both of which I was able to cancel thankfully. I make sure none of my info is stored and use an offline program to store passwords and card numbers that I can then copy and paste into sites when I want to order something.
And there is no expectation of privacy or anything else these days. I trust no one!
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 6:00 pm.
Face it, your data has more of a social life than you do. While you need sleep, your bits and bytes of personal information are off socializing, going to places they shouldn’t be and catching computer social diseases which they bring back to your computer like you never gave them protection.
Yep…data’s evil…and promiscuous…and kinda naive out there on its own.
Do what you would do with anything you care about, get it protection, make sure you know where it’s going, and how it’s getting back home and give it a lights out. Turn off your computer when you’re not using it, and for good measure, remove your lan cable…just to be sure. It’s kinda like taking the keys out of the car so no joyriding can go on.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:23 pm.
Wow, Madeline, that is so eerie! I take comfort from the fact that they’re following me for advertising purposes, rather than for stalker purposes, but it does feel very much like Big Brother is here.
Posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:37 pm.
What you published was very logical. But, consider this, what if you
added a little information? I ain’t suggesting your content is not solid., however what if you added a headline that makes people want more? I mean Who is Watching? | The Goddess Blogs is a little plain. You should peek at Yahoo’s front page and note how they create post headlines to grab people to click. You might try adding a video or a related pic or two to get readers interested about everything’ve got to say. In my opinion, it could bring your blog a little bit more interesting.
Posted on March 24, 2012 at 5:40 pm.
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Posted on April 27, 2012 at 10:18 pm.