A Day in the Life of Privacy

[thewayne]

A writer looks at the many ways that we voluntarily and involuntarily surrender privacy every day.

http://www.securityweek.com/day-life-privacy

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/10/16/1247207/a-day-in-the-life-of-privacy

Comments

[silveradept]

And it's almost scary the way that our friends can compromise our privacy just by doing what they do normally.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was kind of surprised a couple of years ago when I got a Facebook notification that I'd been identified in a photo. I created a FB profile for myself to check it out, then when it was clear that they had total disregard for privacy at the corporate level I stopped using it. On rare occasion I'll look in on certain friends, and that's it. But I also have a page for my game company, which I hope might actually become active and bring in some money some day, so I guess the damn thing is pretty much unavoidable.

And unavoidable is the word. I was reading today about Facebook creating "shadow profiles" of people who do not have FB accounts but are mentioned by FB users or their email address is searched for when a user uploads their email account to see if their friends also have accounts.

The thing that turned me off about Facebook, aside from their corporate attitudes regarding privacy, is the persistent blather. I could care less what game you're playing, or the huge amount of inconsequential posting. I want to read something with at least a little bit of thought behind it. I really don't care what you had for dinner, but if you're talking about dry-aging beef and the end result: that's something I could have an interest in. And I don't want to be friends with the universe! This concept of "I have more friends than you do!" is just flat-out insane and makes me question people's mental health.

[silveradept]

That pretty well sums up what I mean when I say "I don't really see a use in being on Facebook."