4 ms·
One of the weird effects of the internet is that stuff that used to be considered obvious and self-evident is now treated as very sensitive. For example, no one
by cookiecaper 9y ago
One of the weird effects of the internet is that stuff that used to be considered obvious and self-evident is now treated as very sensitive. For example, no one used to consider their gender or race "private" information; rather, it was nearly impossible to interact with another human without these things being self-evident.
Not many years ago, there used to be a book distributed far and wide with the names, address, and phone number of virtually everyone that lived in your city. This was accepted as normal and routine, and you had to specifically opt out of being included.
- falcolas 9y agoThe difference is in the scope. Back when phonebooks were widely used, there was no automated way to correlate those records with other records to create a highly specific list of all Asian women who live in a four block radius of a specific address. You could walk around and find some of them, but that would take a significant amount of time and effort. Phones were also not capable of interrupting you while you were out of the home, nor were they capable of receiving short messages on your dime.