The Internet and the Death of Privacy

[Kobi]

I have googled myself before. I have a professional license which is public information, so that info is available. I have found some references to thank yous in books and articles from colleagues which I didnt expect to find.

Like Dapper, I too, have found a site that provides addresses and phone numbers, ages and persons in the household. That was disconcerting considering every address I have had since the 1970's was there.

I dont use fb or twitter or anything else that can blindside me with uninvited attention. After a few threats in child protection cases, I am extremely cautious using the net. It is too easy to track someone if you are so inclined.

I am also a compulsive cookie eraser after having ads specially tailored for me on certain web sites. That felt very bizarre to me.

After one too many crime shows, I am also very cautious when erasing things on my hard drive. I use secure deletion programs and regularly wipe the space as well. When I am totally bored, I have a program that will search the drive to see what info is still recoverable.

There is very little privacy left in the world and on the net without me leaving a digital footprint everywhere I go.

[EnderD_503]

Since I started using the internet I was always concerned about internet privacy.

Since you brought up Orwell, actually dystopian novels are always what comes to my mind when I think about privacy these days, whether on the internet or in real life. Call me paranoid, but I guess I've always just been really careful and at least in the "googling yourself" aspect, it has kind of paid off as far as maintaining my privacy. When I google my birth name, out of 6 or 7 pages of people that come up, only two refer to me, though unless the people knew my history directly they probably wouldn't know it. One is just an article in a newspaper about an award I received for my honours thesis, while the other is a post on a residence page site from my early university days (but because it's so old, when you click the link my comment doesn't even appear anywhere anymore, nor can you see my account apparently...so not too bad). On my chosen name there is nothing either. Like I said, maybe it's crazy paranoia, but I just don't like the idea of people around the world being able to track my info down just by knowing my name.

The only social media I use is twitter and I don't use my real name, so I'm not too concerned about it.

I do think it's crazy that people add their co-workers, bosses etc. to personal facebook pages or twitter. I've generally held that work life and personal life should not mix at all, as you never know when someone is going get offended about something you say or do on one of these pages and how it'll affect your life at work. Also, I think it causes a lot of friendships to go down the drain where people cause drama over something someone said on facebook. Recently a friend of mine was cussed out and "unfriended" by a long time friend of his on facebook for some incredibly stupid...and the situation probably wouldn't have spiralled out of control if it took place irl.

So in general, lack of privacy online has all sorts of negative ramifications. From google selling people's information, to your boss looking at your crazy drunken holiday pictures.

[Linus]

When I first got online (back in 1993/4) and learned about ways to delve into people's networks and such (kinda gray area stuff), I knew quickly that privacy didn't exist. It never does. In Canada, the expectation of keeping data safe is on the gov't and the businesses. In the US, it's more like a wild west feeling.

In both cases, it's up to an individual. I had long ago decided that the only thing that should appear on the Net are the things that someone could learn if they came up to me in person. Add to that my regular persistence at making sure that the computer I used to connect to the Net was secure and that my behaviour was limited to specific trusted sites and... it's all been good.

I've never had an identity compromise in all my time online. I have had fraudulent changes on credit cards due to taxi usage for work when they use the old fashioned credit card slips with the extra carbon in them.

[Medusa]

People should be super careful on the internet.

There are sites out there like the ones you all have been talking about that are basically clearing houses for people's personal (but legally public) data. You can ask for your information to be removed but I believe that has to be done on a yearly basis otherwise people can get your home address, your phone number, and any other number of things that they could use to be creepy with you.

There are people out there who have ZERO qualms about digging up your personal information and using it to try to intimidate you or fuck with you. I have encountered 2 such people in my time since owning this site and have had to have conversations with family members and my staff at work about possible communications from people who get off on fucking with others. Luckily, I have a super supportive boss and family and am not concerned about anyone being able to "soil" my name. (eyeroll intended)

The best thing to do is Google yourself, search different sites, etc. and start sending "remove me" requests to all of hte databases out there.
Also, try to never ever use your real name or indetifying email addresses on public forums. This is sometimes unavoidable as evidenced with Facebook but you can certainly turn off all of the search functions and lock down your information as much as possible