Social network trawling software??

[Flying_Monkey]

If you're being serious, how can it be an invasion of privacy to read what you've posted on a public forum or website?

Do you think everything you do in public is automatically 'public'?

The boundary between public and private is not quite as clear as this. There are all kinds of things that have a limited intended audience. When you talk to your friend as you are walking down the High Street, you know that people can hear what you are saying in passing, but you do not expect someone to follow you, listening in.

You also do not expect someone to track you online, putting together things you have said in one context to some people, with things said in another context to others, to photos, to whatever.

There is an issue of privacy and a strong one. And BTW, being snidey about someone else's lack of technical knowledge is not the answer here. It should not be the case that people should all meet some geek standard of ability and if they don't, then their information is fair game. This is why we have privacy laws and regulation of how organisations may collect, store and share our information - which need to be much stronger and more foregrounded. Facebook, for example, has recently been exposed as having deliberately made privacy more difficult to operate (and in fact the founder has been quoted as saying if he was starting again, he would never have built in any privacy at all) - they are basically looking for ways to exploit the value of your personal information, whatever you think of this.

And yes, there are many firms now that specialise in online information gathering and sorting, in both open and more shady ways. One of them was recently 'lucky' to have itself bought up by the CIA - intelligence agencies are highly interested in this area too.

 

[mangaman]

I agree it's an invasion of privacy.

If you libel or slander someone that is different.

An off the cuff comment on the web or elsewhere should remain just that.

It's impossible to avoid nowadays, I'm sure, but I try and avoid things like store loyalty cards. I used to have a Waitrose one but I stopped going to supermarkets completely a few years ago and cancelled the Waitrose card I had.

I was called by someone asking why I was cancelling it. I managed to get in a lengthy monologue about how supermarkets are ruining our towns and ripping off suppliers etc without letting the woman get a word in edgeways.

She kind of shut up then.

I considered it an invasion of privacy to be rung at home in the evening by a company asking why I didn't like them any more.

Slightly OT - I've just read a good thriller (a bit gimmicky but great fun and unputdownable) called "The Broken Window" by Jeffrey Deaver about data collection and data mining companies - very interesting and an entertaining read.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Slightly OT - I've just read a good thriller (a bit gimmicky but great fun and unputdownable) called "The Broken Window" by Jeffrey Deaver about data collection and data mining companies - very interesting and an entertaining read.

Yeah, I'd definitely recommend it if you're a crime/thriller fan. For recent SF takes on data and surveillance, Charles Stross's Halting State is fun, as is Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (for teens).

 

[mangaman]

Yeah, I'd definitely recommend it if you're a crime/thriller fan. For recent SF takes on data and surveillance, Charles Stross's Halting State is fun, as is Cory Doctorow's Little Brother (for teens).

You obviously know more than most about these things FM - how close to reality is the data mining company in the book?

For those that haven't read it, it features a company that collects and sells data. To quote the book's blurb

"Data mining is the industry of the 21st century. Commercial companies collect information about us from thousands of sources—credit cards, loyalty programs, hidden radio tags in products, medical histories, employment and banking records, government filings, and many more—then analyze and sell the data to anyone willing to pay the going rate. Some people approve, citing economic benefits; others worry about the erosion of privacy"

 

[Flying_Monkey]

You obviously know more than most about these things FM - how close to reality is the data mining company in the book?

He's done his research, put it that way. Clearly there's some slightly exaggerated elements - it is a thriller after all - but it's not beyond the realms of possibilty.

 

[mangaman]

He's done his research, put it that way. Clearly there's some slightly exaggerated elements - it is a thriller after all - but it's not beyond the realms of possibilty.

Thanks - it's the sort of thing that makes me nervous.

I suppose posting on here is not exactly secure. I'm sure a reading of my postings would identify me in a few minutes if someone wanted to (that's not a challenge, please don't ,) and the same goes for all of us.

There's definitely a change in the air where I work about spying on e-mail use / web-browsing.