3 ms·

Nothing (because none of these are necessary for the kind of privacy I practice). I think about what I post to what social network and some things I just don't

by jschuur 13y ago

Nothing (because none of these are necessary for the kind of privacy I practice). I think about what I post to what social network and some things I just don't post at all. I think I still have privacy. I have private conversations with people via Skype, IM, Facebook, email. Is it possible that at some point those leak? Perhaps. It's just not likely enough that I chose to worry about it. I value the benefits I get over these interactions over the tiny chance they may come back to eventually haunt me. I chose to live in the now and not let myself be gripped by paranoia of what might be.

ljd 13y ago
What you might not be considering are the details between the lines. You might not post private information to Facebook but when and how often you post can tell someone more than you would casually share with a stranger like what your sleeping habits are or if you are at a special event (determined by the lack of generated events during a normally scheduled period of activity for you). After a while, even the non-interactions with the site can tell the site and their advertisers more about you than you might prefer. Think of twitter bots like the automated RobMeNow tweets. Sure letting people know that you are buying a subway sandwich is mundane and hardly private information but entering that information into an archive that can be analyzed to determine how much you spend on fast food and when you are most likely to purchase fast food is probably not something you want to share with advertisers. EDIT: People are commenting about how it's not so bad that advertisers know this information about you. I just want to add that you can replace "advertisers" with any noun that is legally or commercially entitled to the data. It could be a government or the company that acquires your social network.
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  > probably not something you want to share with advertisers. Why not? How would you be in any way worse off because an advertiser knows this?
- eclipxe 13y ago
  Why not? Honestly, if these services can figure me out based on my data, then provide me with their recommendations based on that, why is that not a good thing?
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- jschuur 13y ago
  I love that the replies are full of people who, like me, don't mind if advertisers know more about me. Why wouldn't I want to experience more relevant information about purchase opportunities? What's the alternative? Random stuff that doesn't apply to me? Sites who can't bring in enough revenue to operate that I don't get to use because they can't target me specifically? I'm confident in my ability to say 'no' to an advertiser, just as I appreciate being told about things that might help my lifestyle. I'll research it, I'll look at the pros and cons as well as the costs and will make the final decision. Although, fair disclosure, I run an ad blocker in my browser, so I don't see most of the ads anyway ;) PleaseRobMe was a fun little project that those with a heightened concern for privacy love to point to, but I doubt it ever led to anyone having their house robbed. Again, the benefits of me being able to selectively tweet a conference hashtag and see if anyone wants to hang out in person outweighs the fear that someone's going to see if I left any Apple gadgets at home to steal.
  - gnosis 13y ago
    One problem is that once information is collected about you, there's no guarantee use of it will be limited to the people or entities who collected it. There's also no guarantee that the information won't be abused. Corporations get hacked in to and have data stolen from them all the time (the frequent news stories we hear about data breaches are probably just a drop in the bucket compared to those that happen and go unreported). Unscrupulous employees of these corporations could use the data the corporation collects. This information could also be sold (either legitimately or illegitimately) to others. It could be for stalking, harassment, identity theft, finding out your political sympathies, sexual orientation, etc. The data collected on you could be used by prospective employers, insurance agencies, or love interests to weed you out based on the impression (accurate or not) that they get of you or your social media "friends". Once the data is collected, it could stick around virtually forever. And good luck correcting any mistakes in it.
CatMtKing 13y ago
Low signal-to-noise ratio is an anonymizer, too. Just keep your head down and don't worry about it :P.

by jschuur 13y ago

ljd 13y ago

What you might not be considering are the details between the lines. You might not post private information to Facebook but when and how often you post can tell someone more than you would casually share with a stranger like what your sleeping habits are or if you are at a special event (determined by the lack of generated events during a normally scheduled period of activity for you). After a while, even the non-interactions with the site can tell the site and their advertisers more about you than you might prefer. Think of twitter bots like the automated RobMeNow tweets. Sure letting people know that you are buying a subway sandwich is mundane and hardly private information but entering that information into an archive that can be analyzed to determine how much you spend on fast food and when you are most likely to purchase fast food is probably not something you want to share with advertisers. EDIT: People are commenting about how it's not so bad that advertisers know this information about you. I just want to add that you can replace "advertisers" with any noun that is legally or commercially entitled to the data. It could be a government or the company that acquires your social network.

jamesaguilar 13y ago
> probably not something you want to share with advertisers. Why not? How would you be in any way worse off because an advertiser knows this?
eclipxe 13y ago
Why not? Honestly, if these services can figure me out based on my data, then provide me with their recommendations based on that, why is that not a good thing?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jschuur 13y ago
I love that the replies are full of people who, like me, don't mind if advertisers know more about me. Why wouldn't I want to experience more relevant information about purchase opportunities? What's the alternative? Random stuff that doesn't apply to me? Sites who can't bring in enough revenue to operate that I don't get to use because they can't target me specifically? I'm confident in my ability to say 'no' to an advertiser, just as I appreciate being told about things that might help my lifestyle. I'll research it, I'll look at the pros and cons as well as the costs and will make the final decision. Although, fair disclosure, I run an ad blocker in my browser, so I don't see most of the ads anyway ;) PleaseRobMe was a fun little project that those with a heightened concern for privacy love to point to, but I doubt it ever led to anyone having their house robbed. Again, the benefits of me being able to selectively tweet a conference hashtag and see if anyone wants to hang out in person outweighs the fear that someone's going to see if I left any Apple gadgets at home to steal.
- gnosis 13y ago
  One problem is that once information is collected about you, there's no guarantee use of it will be limited to the people or entities who collected it. There's also no guarantee that the information won't be abused. Corporations get hacked in to and have data stolen from them all the time (the frequent news stories we hear about data breaches are probably just a drop in the bucket compared to those that happen and go unreported). Unscrupulous employees of these corporations could use the data the corporation collects. This information could also be sold (either legitimately or illegitimately) to others. It could be for stalking, harassment, identity theft, finding out your political sympathies, sexual orientation, etc. The data collected on you could be used by prospective employers, insurance agencies, or love interests to weed you out based on the impression (accurate or not) that they get of you or your social media "friends". Once the data is collected, it could stick around virtually forever. And good luck correcting any mistakes in it.

CatMtKing 13y ago

Low signal-to-noise ratio is an anonymizer, too. Just keep your head down and don't worry about it :P.