{"id":2287,"date":"2012-08-26T05:12:46","date_gmt":"2012-08-26T05:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=2287"},"modified":"2012-08-26T06:10:08","modified_gmt":"2012-08-26T06:10:08","slug":"everyone-knows-everything-about-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/everyone-knows-everything-about-you\/","title":{"rendered":"EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU"},"content":{"rendered":"

WHO IS WATCHING YOU ?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like
\nasking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.
\nJohn Perry Barlow <\/a><\/p>\n

You decide to buy a book about surfing and find just want you want on bargains.com.\u00a0 You type in your credit card details and send them off to the company which has assured you that your information is safe with them and goes nowhere but to their secure site. You have every right to believe that the only one who is aware of that number (which is a direct link to your checking account) is an impersonal machine that automatically checks to see if your card is valid.\u00a0 Two months later, you order something else from the site and discover your card is on file.\u00a0 How did that happen? What right have they to save it?\u00a0 Worse: can someone who works there use your details for their own purposes?<\/p>\n

Ah, but the real surprise is that your card details are not only on file with Bargain.com but with several hundred other sites with ads on Google.\u00a0 AND when you send an e mail mentioning surfing, you get twenty ads alongside your e mail telling you that they have spiffy surfboards at half the price you paid at bargain.com.\u00a0 As you look down the list of vendors, you also find new places to surf, hotels to stay at and places to eat especially for surfers.\u00a0 How did Google know you surfed?\u00a0 You haven\u2019t even discussed it with your mother.<\/p>\n

You go to another site to look up books on calligraphy and when you start to type in your contact details to purchase the book you want, you discover that somehow, this omniscient site recognizes you as soon as you type the first letter of your name.\u00a0 How did that happen?\u00a0 You were never interested in calligraphy until an hour ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are hundreds of web-based email services that appear to offer anonymity. Few really do. These include names such as Hotmail, Yahoo, Excite and many more that could be listed. In each of these cases, the user is allowed to create a personal username that he uses for his messages. Unfortunately, through sign-up procedures and logging, it is amazingly simple to determine your ISP, and even your true identity, when you use these services,\u201d says A. Brown on www.e\/cheat.com.<\/p>\n

At first, all this seems to heighten the convenience of shopping or searching on line.\u00a0 We tend to forget that ordinary people are entitled<\/span> to privacy. Refusing to reveal the amount of money we have, where it is deposited and the special interests we have unpublished does not make us terrorists.\u00a0 (Although the way this information is bandied about certainly does make us terrorized.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mike Butcher explains this practice of real time web disclosure:\u00a0 \u201cThe idea behind a real-time Web is to create technology that doesn’t require an Internet user to actively seek out something they’re interested in. That could mean anything from getting pinged when an article about your favourite sports team is posted to an alert when you’re mentioned in someone’s blog.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is something decidedly uncomfortable about the world knowing you like surfing or are interested in pursuing calligraphy\u2026but it is a lot MORE disturbing if your partner finds out you have just joined e harmony to see if someone more exciting awaits or that you like to watch porn while he is selling computers at Frye\u2019s. That is all YOUR business,\u2026or is it?<\/p>\n

A Brown has more to say on the subject: \u201cThere are more reasons to want to protect your privacy than can be named. The important principal is that you have a right to privacy as long as that right is used within the bounds of the law<\/span>. \u00a0Seeking privacy should not make you feel guilty. Privacy should be expected, and demanded. The reasons might be as simple as preserving your right to express unpopular opinions without being subjected to persecution, or as serious as communicating sensitive business information, revealing credit card numbers, legal discussions with your accountant, or hiding your true identity from a secret government. Regardless of your reasons, privacy is your right. Contrary to what some governing bodies might want the public to believe, not all those concerned with security and privacy are hackers or terrorists.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fact that A Brown is just another computer user who has made these observations on a non-technical site is even more unsettling.\u00a0 The \u201cexperts\u201d in computer technology probably know how to find out your eating habits, your sex addictions and your regularity\u2026.Why do they care? \u00a0Perhaps it is to use the information to tempt you to buy a product. \u00a0It could be to garner statistics on the potential success of a new product.\u00a0 Or it could be to harass you and accuse you of something they think you might do\u2026such as drug dealing or behaviour that \u201cdisturbs the peace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facebook says, ‘Privacy is theft,’ because they’re selling
\nyour lack of privacy to the advertisers who might show up one day
\nJaron Lanier<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WHO IS WATCHING YOU ? Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds. John Perry Barlow You decide to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2287","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"