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There is software which is intended to e.g. locate the GitHub profiles of people working at companies, then scrape all public repositories they've contributed t

There is software which is intended to e.g. locate the GitHub profiles of people working at companies, then scrape all public repositories they've contributed to for their email address and the emails of their coworkers - to enable targeted advertising to those individuals. Very common in enterprise sales. With ChatGPT, this can be extended to create emails that look very personal - as if someone has followed all of your work and is genuinely interested in what you are up to - with extremely low effort. And people are already doing this, I already get emails like this today. Should emails be private? I don't know - I personally consider them to be public because I know for a fact mine will eventually be public whether I like it or not. But I am aware AI is out their slurping up every public communication I've ever had, and is likely trying to manipulate me in various ways already today.

Roark66 2y ago
About AI slurping all information. I bet one of the first ideas organisations that spy on population had when the recent AI boom happened was: How about we just train our AI on all the intercepted data and just ask it? Is John Smith a terrorist (for our definition of terrorist)? And the AI would reply: Yes he it, he searched on Google where to buy these ingredients that can be used to make explosives. So then they go and figure out some way to "legally" arrest the guy and obtain more private info. It looks like the guy was buying the stuff because he's got a plot of land to fertilise and an old car to paint. So they ask the AI again. You said John Smith is a terrorist! And the AI would answer. I'm really sorry, I'm doing my best and I'll endeavour to do better in future. After this the agents ask for another billion $ because clearly they need more VRAM.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
benterix 2y ago
This was a problem already before the generative AI era, it just got less expensive. The only way to reduce it is to have two work addresses: one that you rarely check and is exposed to the public, listed on your profile etc., and the real internal one just to get the work done.
- pixl97 2y ago
  >it just got less expensive Quantity is a quality. Add that the AI can profile you and do a decent job spear phishing and you're talking about a sea change. >and the real internal one “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” There is no such thing as an 'internal' email you communicate to other people outside your company with. It's just an email address. Someone at some point will leak it by accident or malice.
  - benterix 2y ago
    > There is no such thing as an 'internal' email you communicate to other people outside your company with. It's just an email address. Someone at some point will leak it by accident or malice. Sure, so personally I never use it to communicate with people outside. Also, I make sure it's never used to register with external licenses like Docker Desktop etc. as they subscribe me to their spamlist and send the usual semi-personalized messages - but as far as I can tell most of these bigger companies don't sell them outside (for a good reason). Startups, however, will do what they want and will make sure to squeeze the last drop from the info that such-and-such person works and that company and does X.
boscovn 2y ago
Personally I've been using an email aliasing service (simplelogin) and try to use a different alias for every purpose. I don't use it for my git commits but I find that email aliasing services are something to look into not just for privacy concerns but also spam mitigation
kurisufag 2y ago
>With ChatGPT, this can be extended to create emails that look very personal - as if someone has followed all of your work and is genuinely interested in what you are up to - with extremely low effort. And people are already doing this, I already get emails like this today. shit, now i don't feel like sending e-mails to people i'm actually interested in

Roark66 2y ago

About AI slurping all information. I bet one of the first ideas organisations that spy on population had when the recent AI boom happened was: How about we just train our AI on all the intercepted data and just ask it? Is John Smith a terrorist (for our definition of terrorist)? And the AI would reply: Yes he it, he searched on Google where to buy these ingredients that can be used to make explosives. So then they go and figure out some way to "legally" arrest the guy and obtain more private info. It looks like the guy was buying the stuff because he's got a plot of land to fertilise and an old car to paint. So they ask the AI again. You said John Smith is a terrorist! And the AI would answer. I'm really sorry, I'm doing my best and I'll endeavour to do better in future. After this the agents ask for another billion $ because clearly they need more VRAM.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

benterix 2y ago

This was a problem already before the generative AI era, it just got less expensive. The only way to reduce it is to have two work addresses: one that you rarely check and is exposed to the public, listed on your profile etc., and the real internal one just to get the work done.

pixl97 2y ago
>it just got less expensive Quantity is a quality. Add that the AI can profile you and do a decent job spear phishing and you're talking about a sea change. >and the real internal one “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” There is no such thing as an 'internal' email you communicate to other people outside your company with. It's just an email address. Someone at some point will leak it by accident or malice.
- benterix 2y ago
  > There is no such thing as an 'internal' email you communicate to other people outside your company with. It's just an email address. Someone at some point will leak it by accident or malice. Sure, so personally I never use it to communicate with people outside. Also, I make sure it's never used to register with external licenses like Docker Desktop etc. as they subscribe me to their spamlist and send the usual semi-personalized messages - but as far as I can tell most of these bigger companies don't sell them outside (for a good reason). Startups, however, will do what they want and will make sure to squeeze the last drop from the info that such-and-such person works and that company and does X.

boscovn 2y ago

Personally I've been using an email aliasing service (simplelogin) and try to use a different alias for every purpose. I don't use it for my git commits but I find that email aliasing services are something to look into not just for privacy concerns but also spam mitigation

kurisufag 2y ago

>With ChatGPT, this can be extended to create emails that look very personal - as if someone has followed all of your work and is genuinely interested in what you are up to - with extremely low effort. And people are already doing this, I already get emails like this today. shit, now i don't feel like sending e-mails to people i'm actually interested in