Online Privacy Doesn't Exist
Posted January 16th, 2008 by aptana
How anonymous do you think you are online? As long as you don’t give away personal details you’ll retain your privacy, right? Wrong. Leading software companies are developing software that could accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially your location, solely based on analyzing patterns in your web browsing history. How far should we allow technology to delve into our private lives and is there a limit?
Privacy is against the point
The whole point of the internet is to allow the free and unrestricted flow of information all over the world. A lack of privacy is the price we pay for the wealth of information we can get out there.
Quick point.
Nothing online is truly private. Everything you do online is always tracked in one form or other. Also any information you put online is open to anyone who wants to see it if they try. There is no way to make yourself truley private. But what does it matter. If you don't want your information available on the internet then don't use it.
Several points off the top
Several points off the top of my head.
1st: (Before mentioned) Innocent people have nothing to hide.
for the rest of us:
2nd: Safety in numbers, it's like winning a lottery to be caught at something illegal on the internet - one feels like winning the jackpot.
3rd: if you change your mac address and ip address on the net regularly, you are pretty much anonymous.
BUT they can track you down with time (LOTS of time) IF they are looking for you.
So we are safe enough, and if you still fill paranoid (even after following point no.3), just get a freeware program that creates fake signals and accounts all over the net to be used once and discarded. It'll give the CIA a headache trying to catch you.
PS. The gallery is kind of small.
what about - Jeremy
what about - Jeremy Clarkson (Top Gear Guy) he published his bank details as stunt and it back fired -
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/07/clarkson_bank_prank_backfires/
the bank may not be able to
the bank may not be able to find out who did it but im pretty sure that legally it is their responsibility to refund the money to clarkson, the legal claus is printed at the bottom of every charity direct debit form.
Okay so I read the article -
Okay so I read the article - but he did it on purpose. If you're stupid enough to publish your bank details, sort code and hints about your address then you deserve to be robbed!
And anyway, that has nothing to do with ONLINE privacy.
Well, if you aren't doing
Well, if you aren't doing anything wrong, then why would you want to hide? We give out personal information all the time - banks know everything, we give our phone numbers out without a second thought.
People have some sort of phobia about giving out information over the internet. Crooks will just find newer and more efficient ways of accessing it.
"Well, if you aren't doing
"Well, if you aren't doing anything wrong, then why would you want to hide?"
That's a fine reponse in itself, but upon a broader look it seems very selfish. Of course we want the bad guys to be caught at the bad things that they do but by turning a blind eye as such, we are pretty much giving up our freedom and privacy. This is the situation with CCTV cameras - especially in the United Kingdom.
Banksy recently did a piece which was cleverly written just next a CCTV camera. It read "One nation under CCTV". (Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article...).
That response can lead to "Ok, so that doesn't effect me so I don't mind" and before we know it, the internet is not free, and is not even as private as it is now. Something no one wants to see happening I am sure.
personal data on this website
I'm concerned that you must enter your birth date to become a member of this website. This is private information. Banks ask you for this to verify your identity. The purpose of capturing this information should be stated (maybe it is but I didn't see it).
Hi Cinclus ... good point
Hi Cinclus ... good point ... but we need to capture people's age to verify that they are over 15, as per the Terms & Conditions of Use. Thanks for joining up!!
people still think they can
people still think they can surf online anonymously, as long as they don't sign in to anything. everything you do online can be traced back to you, from what you say to your friends over instant messaging to what you surf for using your favourite search engine, unless you are very clued up and you can cover your tracks.
the internet is potentially endless, but surprisingly enough, there is nowhere that we can hide.
Email records kept
This does not seem like a step in the right direction for privacy -
From the Irish Times web site -
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/0119/1200605160420.html
"Records of e-mails and internet chat messages sent and received by Irish residents - and the times they log on and off the internet - will have to be stored for three years. The scheme will be implemented within a month.
...for "Three Years" ...
I could understand if they
I could understand if they wanted to keep the content of state emails for historical research, under a rule similar to the "thirty-year rule", but this seems like a blatant violation of the individual citizens privacy rights.
And what could be the benefit of having this information for every citizen of the EU?