As I was destroying the good old English language on my blog, I have never worried that people might found out who I am and start laugh out loud at me. Like my friend Nick, the creator of Dread and Alive, Hitless, FlashTV and maybe other great project; he basically told me that he liked my link on Facebook, but he had no idea what I was talking about. There, enough proof that I have been destroying this language but I really don’t care because I don’t know most of the vistors that came to this site and the people I do know knows I am a crappy writer. I got nothing to lose. But am I really anonymous on the internet?
Maybe, when it was 10 years ago. My life is so tangled up in social networking sites that you can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquares, Linkedin, and even World of Warcraft related websites. I kind of established my identity on the internet through my profile picture. The red round laughing head which I proudly taken from one of the artist from deviantART.com. So people can easily find me, send direct message at me, or follow me. It is really easy to pin point my location through Twitter, and Foursquares before and now I’ve joined BUZZ. Yeah, my read round laughing head popping up on google map. Just like the pleaserobme.com shows, people can use twitter or buzz to track one’s whereabouts, use yelp and foursquares to study that person’s shopping and entertainment habbit. It really isn’t hard to compile a list of gold mine. All people have to do is go in and take the prizes. How cool is that?
This isn’t new, according to consumerist.com, buglers was using answering machine and funeral notices as early as 1977 to rob people. The invention of twitter, foursquares, and other social networking sites just made buglers’ job a lot more easier. Well, I am all for it because it is also a lot harder for them to get away with their loots as geo location enable devices are becoming the norm. Like these good laptop thieft prevention tools.
Last week, Google’s Eric Schmidt defended the Buzz privacy issue at launch with “I think it was our fault that we did not communicate that fact very well, but the important thing is that no really bad stuff happens in the sense that nobody’s personal information was disclosed.”, full article at The Register. People were furious about over his statement but personally, I think he’s right. Think about it, gmail is free, even if your email address had been published by google on the buzz, just get a new one. People shouldn’t be really mad at a free product. In the end, it’s people’s own responsibility to safeguard their own information. If you don’t want to leak anything out on the web, don’t put it on the web. That’s how it is. So for the next couple of days, you’ll be seeing me checking in and out of gun shop quite often. Muhahahahahaha
24 February, 4:16 pm
Well the products you mention are not really free. The cost is your privacy. When people sign up for a web based service like gmail. The Privacy policy at that time is like the price they agree to pay for the service. (I agreed to let google use my data to show me advertisements in exchange for gmail service)
When companies change the privacy policy or even the settings after someone signs up that is similar to them hiking the price retroactively. (How would you like if Dell decided to up the price of the laptop you bought and they sent you a bill for the difference or even better just charged your bank account)
That is what the issue is with the BUZZ deal or the Facebook settings thing.
Things that diminish your privacy in exchange for something useful should always be opt in.