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LinkedIn taught me, back in 2005, to never link my address book to anything. This has been so helpful because any time an app wants to do anything with my addre

LinkedIn taught me, back in 2005, to never link my address book to anything. This has been so helpful because any time an app wants to do anything with my address book, I assume that they will do the dumbest, most embarrassing thing possible. Also, I used to have the “I don’t care if people see what I do setting” turned on, because why not. Then LinkedIn started emailing people because I moused over their post and stuff. Some contact emailed me to ask what I needed from her and it was so weird. And the email it sent her was super incorrect and stupid and said something like “Prepend wants to get back in touch with you.”

l8rpeace 6y ago
I could practically set my clock by this...when I would get an announcement email from someone asking me to join LinkedIn and connect with them, I would know they (1) just got a new phone and (2) fell for the grey pattern during sign up/new login to share all of their contacts.
- Silhouette 6y ago
  This is one of the most compelling arguments against the laissez-faire attitude to sharing personal data that has permeated the tech industry as we've become an increasingly connected society. It's all very well saying the person who owns the device consented to RandomNotMalwareAtAllApp accessing their address book, or listening in on their mic, or accessing their camera or photos, but what about everyone else who is now being observed or data mined as a result of that action? Obviously there has to be some reasonable middle ground, because otherwise no-one can ever provide an online service that offers a genuinely useful facility, say hosting email, even if it's done in a way that is respectful of privacy. But hoovering up someone's entire address book or photo collection or whatever, and then dumping the details into some database of shadow profiles or using it for other purposes that affect the data subjects? At some point, I think you are clearly across the line of what should be considered acceptable behaviour.
  - cgriswald 6y ago
    What reasonable middle ground does there need to be? If I share my contact book with an app I want: 1. That data to go exactly nowhere. 2. The company to not profit from the data except by profiting off me directly using their service. 3. That company to not allow anyone else (including me!) to do shady things with that data. It’s not really complicated. It does make some business plans impossible, which causes some people to make absurd rationalizations.
    - Silhouette 6y ago
      That is exactly the sort of middle ground I had in mind. You aren't entirely prohibiting sharing data that might involve other people, but it is only shared for a specific purpose requested by the person providing the data and never used for anything else.
Silhouette 6y ago
People wonder why I don't want to use smartphone apps for, well, almost anything. This. This is why. At least browsing someone's web app using a real browser on a real PC, I know I'm in control of what data they do or (usually) don't have enough access to read. I was looking into some of the new banks in the UK recently, and it is apparently becoming common to not only provide but require the use of their mobile app to identify yourself and set up an account with them. Oh, and by the way, their terms imply that they might also use that app to track a few little details, like your location at all times. Perhaps they just need "to make sure it's really you"? I will enjoy the Schadenfreude if the data protection regulator gets involved... but not as a customer of any bank that tries that!
- brailsafe 6y ago
  My girlfriend's father, who works at an insurance company, heard I was looking for work while I was over at dinner, and starting talking about one of the hot new technology things they're investing in, which was real-time location monitoring in-app. I tried to be polite—as I am with most people who hear that I do computers or whatever— but he did seem taken aback by my lack of enthusiasm for my insurance company being able to know where I am at all times.
- matheusmoreira 6y ago
  Banks in Brazil came up with something called a "security module". It's a kernel driver that intercepts all network connections. It makes everything slow and probably leaks highly sensitive private information back to the bank and god knows who else. I had to boot windows in safe mode in order to get rid of this thing. Apparently, malware is perfectly legitimate if it serves the business interests of the rich and powerful.
  - the_only_law 6y ago
    Oh god, and I thought anti cheat kernel crap was bad .
    - matheusmoreira 6y ago
aaron_m04 6y ago
This is reminding me of the time I changed an abbreviated word in my job title to its spelled out form and I got dozens of connections congratulating me on the new job.
- ta988 6y ago
  I use to change my birthdate on a few social networs every few months and I would get always the same people sending best wishes and such.
  - cgriswald 6y ago
    I always assume birthdays on social networks are lies like mine is and never wish happy birthday or I ask in person.
  - pjanoman 6y ago
    Would you have preferred that they wrote down everyone's birthday, or not have wished you their birthday? I don't see how this applies to the LinkedIn situation.
- mark-r 6y ago
  I'm pretty sure I've sent those kind of misguided congratulations, probably twice that I can remember. One was a guy who I knew had moved to India, so I congratulated him on moving back to the U.S. - I think he had really just changed the status of his online consultancy. The other was just updating the name of the company because it had just been bought out. I never got a response from either of them.
netsharc 6y ago
Sadly not linking your address book is probably not enough. I use 1 email address for almost all online shops and site registrations, and sadly I also used it for Facebook. The result? Shops upload their customer data to Facebook (I think it's an FB "feature" so they (the shops) can target ads at their customers), and guess which identifier they use? Yeah, I'm quite sure the customers' email address. Hah, even if I used different emails, my name is very very unique. And writing this I wonder how GDPR compliant the whole thing is, or if they just trade md5s of emails with each other..
cgriswald 6y ago
My actual last name is impossible to spell if you just hear it. Even if you enter what you heard into Google, you won’t find it. Took a class. After a couple months I gave a presentation which included my full name spelled out on a PowerPoint. That same day I got a few friend suggestions on a certain social network which included girls in my class who I otherwise had no connection with (no previous suggestions, no mutual friends). This was either an incredible coincidence or they had looked me up. I haven’t looked at a profile on any site without considering this day since.

l8rpeace 6y ago

I could practically set my clock by this...when I would get an announcement email from someone asking me to join LinkedIn and connect with them, I would know they (1) just got a new phone and (2) fell for the grey pattern during sign up/new login to share all of their contacts.

Silhouette 6y ago
This is one of the most compelling arguments against the laissez-faire attitude to sharing personal data that has permeated the tech industry as we've become an increasingly connected society. It's all very well saying the person who owns the device consented to RandomNotMalwareAtAllApp accessing their address book, or listening in on their mic, or accessing their camera or photos, but what about everyone else who is now being observed or data mined as a result of that action? Obviously there has to be some reasonable middle ground, because otherwise no-one can ever provide an online service that offers a genuinely useful facility, say hosting email, even if it's done in a way that is respectful of privacy. But hoovering up someone's entire address book or photo collection or whatever, and then dumping the details into some database of shadow profiles or using it for other purposes that affect the data subjects? At some point, I think you are clearly across the line of what should be considered acceptable behaviour.
- cgriswald 6y ago
  What reasonable middle ground does there need to be? If I share my contact book with an app I want: 1. That data to go exactly nowhere. 2. The company to not profit from the data except by profiting off me directly using their service. 3. That company to not allow anyone else (including me!) to do shady things with that data. It’s not really complicated. It does make some business plans impossible, which causes some people to make absurd rationalizations.
  - Silhouette 6y ago
    That is exactly the sort of middle ground I had in mind. You aren't entirely prohibiting sharing data that might involve other people, but it is only shared for a specific purpose requested by the person providing the data and never used for anything else.

Silhouette 6y ago

People wonder why I don't want to use smartphone apps for, well, almost anything. This. This is why. At least browsing someone's web app using a real browser on a real PC, I know I'm in control of what data they do or (usually) don't have enough access to read. I was looking into some of the new banks in the UK recently, and it is apparently becoming common to not only provide but require the use of their mobile app to identify yourself and set up an account with them. Oh, and by the way, their terms imply that they might also use that app to track a few little details, like your location at all times. Perhaps they just need "to make sure it's really you"? I will enjoy the Schadenfreude if the data protection regulator gets involved... but not as a customer of any bank that tries that!

brailsafe 6y ago
My girlfriend's father, who works at an insurance company, heard I was looking for work while I was over at dinner, and starting talking about one of the hot new technology things they're investing in, which was real-time location monitoring in-app. I tried to be polite—as I am with most people who hear that I do computers or whatever— but he did seem taken aback by my lack of enthusiasm for my insurance company being able to know where I am at all times.
matheusmoreira 6y ago
Banks in Brazil came up with something called a "security module". It's a kernel driver that intercepts all network connections. It makes everything slow and probably leaks highly sensitive private information back to the bank and god knows who else. I had to boot windows in safe mode in order to get rid of this thing. Apparently, malware is perfectly legitimate if it serves the business interests of the rich and powerful.
- the_only_law 6y ago
  Oh god, and I thought anti cheat kernel crap was bad .
  - matheusmoreira 6y ago

aaron_m04 6y ago

This is reminding me of the time I changed an abbreviated word in my job title to its spelled out form and I got dozens of connections congratulating me on the new job.

ta988 6y ago
I use to change my birthdate on a few social networs every few months and I would get always the same people sending best wishes and such.
- cgriswald 6y ago
  I always assume birthdays on social networks are lies like mine is and never wish happy birthday or I ask in person.
- pjanoman 6y ago
  Would you have preferred that they wrote down everyone's birthday, or not have wished you their birthday? I don't see how this applies to the LinkedIn situation.
mark-r 6y ago
I'm pretty sure I've sent those kind of misguided congratulations, probably twice that I can remember. One was a guy who I knew had moved to India, so I congratulated him on moving back to the U.S. - I think he had really just changed the status of his online consultancy. The other was just updating the name of the company because it had just been bought out. I never got a response from either of them.

netsharc 6y ago

Sadly not linking your address book is probably not enough. I use 1 email address for almost all online shops and site registrations, and sadly I also used it for Facebook. The result? Shops upload their customer data to Facebook (I think it's an FB "feature" so they (the shops) can target ads at their customers), and guess which identifier they use? Yeah, I'm quite sure the customers' email address. Hah, even if I used different emails, my name is very very unique. And writing this I wonder how GDPR compliant the whole thing is, or if they just trade md5s of emails with each other..

cgriswald 6y ago

My actual last name is impossible to spell if you just hear it. Even if you enter what you heard into Google, you won’t find it. Took a class. After a couple months I gave a presentation which included my full name spelled out on a PowerPoint. That same day I got a few friend suggestions on a certain social network which included girls in my class who I otherwise had no connection with (no previous suggestions, no mutual friends). This was either an incredible coincidence or they had looked me up. I haven’t looked at a profile on any site without considering this day since.