Steve Ellis

Exposing your private parts to public view

Not literally obviously, that's a whole different topic - but The Sydney Morning Herald has a good summary of the implications for privacy in an online world. For a flavour here's the end game list of how one can build a picture of 'you' from public domain sources.

  • Your eBay purchasing record reveals your possessions and interests.
  • Your Amazon comments and reviews reveal your reading history.
  • Your Wikipedia editing record reveals your interests, opinions, even travel history.
  • Your Flikr/YouTube/MySpace account/blog shows what you look like, who your friends are and what you think.
  • Your web domain record may have your contact details and phone number.
  • Your web browsing history is stored by ISPs and accessed by organisations such as Hitwise.
  • If you don't know how to secure a wireless router, your neighbours can scan your computer and download your private files.

All of which is insightful for newcomers to the web, and a salutary reminder for those of us who think we know what we are doing, but even that doesn't touch upon the curious discrepancy of a generation that thinks nothing of sharing intimate details online via myspace/blog/whatever but is also vehement about protecting notions of 'privacy'.

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Published 28 Feb 2007 by Steve Ellis
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