The "myspace culture" seems to have made companies think people don't care about privacy any more. Name, Age, Zip Code, now I know everything about you. That's why I never reveal the big 3. Others do, that's fine, but big companies have been ramping up the "share everything" options to the point where they don't even seem optional any more.
Just this morning I had to quickly shut OFF google's "buzz" service after finding out that it decided I wanted a page dedicated to myself (I didn't and never asked it to) and that I wanted everyone in the world to know who I've been e-mailing (again, I don't, and I'm just hopeful that some psychiatrist/patient confidentiality hasn't been compromised by this automatic opt-in policy).
Then I found out that yahoo did the same thing, so I had to find their own well hidden opt out option to shut THAT leak off.
Microsoft has been better, but it always came off as creepy when they introduced "view your friend's friends" as an automatic opt-in.
Now even Blizzard is throwing privacy to the four winds with their revamped Battle.net. It's manual opt-in, which is great, but the issue is that to even use it, called "RealID", you have to actually share your real name with, well, pretty much everyone. Isn't that a bit much Blizzard?
Anonymous identity is still valuable. People should be in less of a rush to give it up like this. There's a reason I don't use Myspace. The other part of it is I have a healthy sense of shame. I don't consider the details of my life valuable at all to others, and consider the idea of sharing every little thought as it comes into my head unfiltered on Twitter the height of vanity, as it is basically saying "I am valuable as a person", when I know better.
People need to be a little more ashamed of themselves. A robot uprising reducing us to meat puppets would probably do the trick.
Nobody uses MySpace anymore. It's all about Facebook these days.
And, I find it quite easy to use Facebook and limit the amount of personal information shared with the world. My standards may be slightly less exacting than yours, of course, but I've suffered no ill effects from allowing people to know where a random person such as myself lives to within the nearest population center of 200,000 people.
Furthermore: I've been at RC/TC for almost a full decade, and I have to admit that I would like to know a little something about people I've associated with for so long.
Really? Myspace is gone? Huh...
This isn't really a criticism of Myspace or Facebook or whatever people use so much as me criticising the sharing of data I didn't tell a service to share, just automatically, as though I WANTED that.
As for knowing a "little something" about me. Well, I've shared enough over the years. Will knowing stuff about my real world relationships and how this one dude TOTALLY cut me off really enrich your life?
Probably not. But, I do derive some pleasure from having a few personal elements to attach to a long-term (yet faceless) acquaintance. Myself, I've constructed several deep and personal relationships through the internet, some of which I value as much as the ones I have "in real life", and some of the former even more than some of the latter.
Agreed, it's just that I like to keep my "worlds" seperate. This speaker will make my point.
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haha ;D
No seriously, post your myspace.
Add me damn you: myspace.com/chronic_excogitation
I don't have a myspace page, or a facebook page, or a buzz page since I turned it off.
Do you get on Xbox Live any more? Weren't you Babylegs?
Dark Jaguar Wrote:I don't have a myspace page, or a facebook page, or a buzz page since I turned it off.
Do you get on Xbox Live any more? Weren't you Babylegs?
Ha ha, baby legs...
I can speak from personal experience that "mixing my worlds", as you say, has done nothing but enrich my own life. Getting to know someone on a personal level, even someone hundreds or thousands of miles away, can be just as real and meaningful as meeting a person face to face.
Ugh, again this isn't about people on the internet not being "real people". I already learned that lesson, long ago. It's about the total lack of a need to tell friends what my family is up to because it's none of their business, and visa versa. It's the same reason I'd rather not find out about the personal life of people like Miyamoto. That's his own business. I just care about his creative talents, and prying further is just plain rude.
I don't want people to know what the other people I know are doing. It's because those people's privacy should be respected, and really it's none of their business. There's nothing evil or wrong about wanting to keep secrets. There's perfectly legimitate secrets to keep outside of criminal activity and "scandels" ya know. That lady who didn't want her abusive ex knowing anything about her family is one key example.
Anyway, google is accepting this reality of a lot of people's lives and now has changed their buzz service to be opt-in instead of opt-out, as it should have been. I'm not saying everyone should keep everything bottled up if they don't want to, I'm saying people should be free to NOT share and there's nothing wrong with that. I reject the notion that it shows a lack of character growth.
I mean imagine the chaos if I told you about what my family is up to? I might be expected to mention if there's been a fight, and then the worst case scenario, I would have to "listen" to "advice" on it. Ugh, no thank you. Yeah, then I'd have to log in and "keep you up to date", your "thoughts would be with me", some of your advice might actually work, then I'd have to thank you... I'd be mentioning the good times too, suddenly there's "hey that's great news, congratulations!" and "ya know what you should do next is" or "hey that's interesting can I ask you more about...". It's just this rat's nest of human interaction and I'd rather not get into it.
Isn't it enough to grace you with the shining radiance of my glorious personality every now and then without getting bogged down in other people I know?
Anyway, just to add to this, posting information about my friends and family is a sure-fire way to get total strangers aware of that information. That's scary right there. Further, if I reveal the wrong thing, I'm "known", and with that, I'm vulnurable. Remember, Name, Age, Zip, now I know everything else about you.
You're so odd.
The internet in many ways is a social exercise, the ability to tell the world what you think and for the world to tell you what they think.
I cant tell you how many times i've built PC's, fixed televisions, hell I even did my own stitches all because I was able to share information on the web. Getting personal, when I broke up from a longterm relationship I thank God for being able to have an outlet and find all the interesting people out there to share their story. Sure, there's always those idiots that want to make fun of you but trust me, their time will come. If its a family fight who knows, you might find yourself talking to someone who went through almost exactly what you did and found acceptance with it or even resources to help that you didn't consider or know about previously.
That's why the whole thing works so well. You like to see women eating ice cream? There's a pornsite for that. You want to learn about 3D modeling in Maya? Here's a message board to learn the tricks of the trade. You thought about starting a jogging routine? Your pet is sick? or your pet died and you're looking for an emotional release? Or sometimes you just need to know the world is bigger than your life.
But ultimately, its your choice as to what you tell people about and as the saying goes, you get back what you put in to it. If I ran a reverse trace IP finder with a hack to circumvent proxies and went to your neighborhood with a marching band proclaiming your homosexuality would you really be THAT mad? I mean seriously. Why the Big Brother scare? "Oh noez my dad will find out that i'm mad at him"? Come on, sir. You can handle that.
Nope, it's just a matter of personal privacy. Yeesh, is that so hard to grasp?
And I'm not "odd", this google issue has been all over the net the past week.
You know, facebook is a bit of a selection bias. After all the only thing you know is that every single person you know ON FACEBOOK happens to HAVE FACEBOOK. There's still the rest of the entire internet that doesn't even care about it.
Let me make one thing clear. I have no issue with people deciding to be more public. I'm not one of them. That is not a sign of personal weakness or "big brother" panic. I just prefer not to share things about myself. Safety aside, I don't want it all out in the open. The lack of understanding is kinda blatant when you assume it's fear of being made fun of. That's not it. It's a "sense of privacy", of me being allowed to have some knowledge JUST for me. Is that so selfish?
It's not selfish at all, you're just odd. In my post i was trying to cover the bases, I also mentioned that you get out of it what you put in to it. If you dont want people to know about personal things, you dont tell people about personal things. Its not like the internet can grab shit out of your mind. Not yet anyway.
If there is some venue where you're putting out information, lets say some social network, and you dont want that shit getting around, private your account, make it friends only.
You're being incredibly defensive on the matter when its actually under your control in the first place. You're proclaiming a worry with the internet without realizing that you are the one putting your information out there. So no, I guess I dont get it. "Me being allowed to have knowledge just for me." So... dont put it on the internet lol?
I think you are misunderstanding me.
This is about how Google dropped the ball by sharing private information without permission. On THAT point, I'm upset. I already know not to put info I don't want others to know. That's clear to me. On that point, we're agreed.
What you were saying before I took to mean you think I SHOULD share information, and on THAT point, I very much disagreed.
That's it okay? You don't need to know that I'm in walking distance of a graveyard, or what pharmacies I visit, or which strange foreign professors I visit late at night, or what forbidden tomes I check out of local universities, or any of that, okay?
Dark Jaguar Wrote:I think you are misunderstanding me.
This is about how Google dropped the ball by sharing private information without permission. On THAT point, I'm upset.
If its on the internet, it's not private, not really. We even have 24/7 security that can actively search your hard drive as long as you're connected to the internet in these little spy planes paid for by the homeland security offices and tax dollars.
Quote:What you were saying before I took to mean you think I SHOULD share information, and on THAT point, I very much disagreed.
I was only offering a different view, in that it could be a tool to use instead of a burden to avoid since it seems to matter so much to you.
Quote:That's it okay? You don't need to know that I'm in walking distance of a graveyard, or what pharmacies I visit, or which strange foreign professors I visit late at night, or what forbidden tomes I check out of local universities, or any of that, okay?
God damn I love bringing instruments to mausoleums and crematoriums. But okay, you dont want anyone to know those things. So dont put it on the internet. That strange google option can only display what you put in to it. Mine must look like hell since I google anything, just a few hours ago I wanted to know if a person could be killed by a horse penis and before that I was reading the untranslated bible with references to what the words mean and their meaning pertaining to that time period. ie: a full belly meaning knowledgeable and "virgin" meaning young and beautiful, not actually abstinent from sex. People must think i'm really fucked up with what I do on the internet, but the difference between you and me is I dont give a fuck and neither should you! :D
The default should always be to not share information, of course. Privacy definitely should still matter, particularly with how much damage people can do if they learn too much of your personal information...
It is good to see that Google backed off on this and changed the default setting to no, and that people actually complained. If I had a gmail account I definitely would have been pretty unhappy about this too...
I can understand the want for privacy, that's fine.
What I think you're overemphasizing is the perceived danger of having your info on the web for "strangers" to see. I have news for you: those strangers couldn't give a damn. You're more likely to be struck by lightning while shaking hands with the Dalai Lama. The media would have you believe otherwise, but there are hundreds and thousands of people who have put information on the Internet and yet, somehow, have avoided being raped and murdered. To think.
I'm not saying you should release your information. You do what you like, and I shall do what I like. I just want you to have your facts straight.
You're far more likely to be victimized by random searches for your social security number than anything you can offer on Facebook.
lazy for the record there are NOT spy planes that can scan your computer from the sky. That's stupid.
Anyway, this didn't need to be a "thing". I was basically just saying google was stupid for sharing contact information, I provided a very real example in that news story above, and beyond that, I also would point out that danger aside, I just don't want to share that sort of thing. Let me put it this way. In the real world, I've never had a desire to post my entire life history on the outside of my house. Granted, there are those that do. Some people seem to like covering their car bumpers in their political views. Not really my style. In fact I consider it rude to assume whoever is behind me cares who I am.
If the "singularity" thing ever happens, I think I'll just be friends with it but won't actually bother "merging" thank you very much. I want my AT field intact.
What the hell is that avatar Welty? 0-0
Privacy is important, but I will say that the dangers of giving out information on the internet are retarded. Who the hell is going to pick out some random person on the internet who lives halfway across the globe, find out their information, travel to their location, all just to rape and murder them? You have a higher probability of being raped and murdered by someone near you than someone who just happened to find out your information online. (Not saying this to you in particular, DJ. I'm just venting at no one in particular about how overhyped the dangers of the internet are perceived.)
But yeah, it isn't right for websites to give out private information like that without your permission, and the default option should be "no." It should be your choice what information you share with the world and what information you keep to yourself.
Geno, that's the first response so far, aside from ABF, that actually seems to be responding to the views I actually hold :D. Agreed.
Geno Wrote:Privacy is important, but I will say that the dangers of giving out information on the internet are retarded. Who the hell is going to pick out some random person on the internet who lives halfway across the globe, find out their information, travel to their location, all just to rape and murder them? You have a higher probability of being raped and murdered by someone near you than someone who just happened to find out your information online. (Not saying this to you in particular, DJ. I'm just venting at no one in particular about how overhyped the dangers of the internet are perceived.)
True, it's much more likely that they'll just steal your identity and ruin your credit, etc... and yeah, there might not be much you can do about that, a lot of that information isn't stuff that people divulge on message boards. Still, I'd think that the more you say about yourself the more you're opening yourself up to potential issues...
I know that for most people nothing will ever happen, but still, I'm just a little paranoid about it I guess. :) And it is certainly possible...
Quote:But yeah, it isn't right for websites to give out private information like that without your permission, and the default option should be "no." It should be your choice what information you share with the world and what information you keep to yourself.
I quite definitely with this part for sure. They want to share it to make more money though, generally (because the more they know about people at their site the more they can probably charge for advertising), so it's a battle of privacy vs. money... and it's hard for privacy to win any such fight, unfortunately.
A Black Falcon Wrote:True, it's much more likely that they'll just steal your identity and ruin your credit, etc... and yeah, there might not be much you can do about that, a lot of that information isn't stuff that people divulge on message boards. Still, I'd think that the more you say about yourself the more you're opening yourself up to potential issues...
I know that for most people nothing will ever happen, but still, I'm just a little paranoid about it I guess. :) And it is certainly possible...
Anything is possible. It's possible that I could get sucked up by a tornado tonight and become lodged in a tree a mile away. I don't expect to sit up tonight worrying about it.
The media has overhyped the dangers of putting yourself on the internet to absurd levels. If you put your social security number or credit card number on a website, then yeah, you're running a legitimate risk. Name? Age? Location? Interests? Have em. Hell, I'll give you my address (and have).
The risk is so laughably small that the emphasis people put on it really is...well, just as laughable.
Yeah, you definitely have to be careful about who you give your credit card information to. Well-known websites like Paypal and Amazon are usually a safe bet, but even then, someone can hack into your account and obtain that information. There's also those annoying phishing scam emails I get from people pretending to be with Paypal or Amazon asking me to enter my credit card information to "verify." Funny how the login page URL doesn't begin with
http://www.paypal.com or
http://www.amazon.com. In cases like this, it's more a matter of common sense than any actual danger.
While I agree that in most cases it's a nonissue, depending on who you are in the real world, well things can get ugly much faster. Plus, an address online is a quick way for address gatherers to figure out where to send junkmail.
At any rate, Google is currently being sued over this.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/...-court.ars