Post by Skylands on Jun 18, 2009 11:47:56 GMT -5
Note: Admins sticky this please, it is very important to everyone.
Think about these three sentences:
"Tell me your car sign and I'll tell you where you went for holiday last year - and with whom!"
"Tell me your credit card and I tell you what you ate last week!"
"So - you want a life insurance? Well, we've taken a look at your data and see: You're overweight, smoke, drink lot of, don't go to gym or similar and like risky motorsports. Sorry, we can't give you the police."
--
Always keep in mind: Whatever you put on the web, stays on the web. Photos, videos, music, personal information; everything is saved on servers around the world, seen by at least one or two search spiders, maybe even internet archive servers and quite some people. Some of those download and save the pictures you made, republish them in different places.
Places like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogs, the DeviantArt Journal's, even the comments made there or this forum, can be indexed, data collected and joined in every possible way and kind. And if enough data is collected, the collector (maybe your future employer, boss, co-worker, team-leader, school-class, director or whatever) learns about your interests and even those secrets you have; like your sicknesses, allergies, favourites, weaknesses or political orientations. Or a bank, insurance agency or whoever can go, make a search for you and your profile on the net and therefore decide to deny your mortgage, insurances and stuff - just because you wrote something wrong at some place.
Always remember: Only use sensitive personal data where necessary. Information should be used very limited, as many as needed, as few as possible. Never think about "Oh, I don't have anything to hide" <Yes, you do. Everybody has something he/she wants to keep for him/herself: His/her privacy.
Go ahead and Google for your mail adresses, your instant messenger-adresses, your nicknames. You'll be surprised what you find out about yourself somewhere on the net.
The web isn't anonymous. Even if you use an alias, you can be identified with very low effort. There's no anonymity on the net and your actions are being recorded for all eternity.
Think about these three sentences:
"Tell me your car sign and I'll tell you where you went for holiday last year - and with whom!"
"Tell me your credit card and I tell you what you ate last week!"
"So - you want a life insurance? Well, we've taken a look at your data and see: You're overweight, smoke, drink lot of, don't go to gym or similar and like risky motorsports. Sorry, we can't give you the police."
--
Always keep in mind: Whatever you put on the web, stays on the web. Photos, videos, music, personal information; everything is saved on servers around the world, seen by at least one or two search spiders, maybe even internet archive servers and quite some people. Some of those download and save the pictures you made, republish them in different places.
Places like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Blogs, the DeviantArt Journal's, even the comments made there or this forum, can be indexed, data collected and joined in every possible way and kind. And if enough data is collected, the collector (maybe your future employer, boss, co-worker, team-leader, school-class, director or whatever) learns about your interests and even those secrets you have; like your sicknesses, allergies, favourites, weaknesses or political orientations. Or a bank, insurance agency or whoever can go, make a search for you and your profile on the net and therefore decide to deny your mortgage, insurances and stuff - just because you wrote something wrong at some place.
Always remember: Only use sensitive personal data where necessary. Information should be used very limited, as many as needed, as few as possible. Never think about "Oh, I don't have anything to hide" <Yes, you do. Everybody has something he/she wants to keep for him/herself: His/her privacy.
Go ahead and Google for your mail adresses, your instant messenger-adresses, your nicknames. You'll be surprised what you find out about yourself somewhere on the net.
The web isn't anonymous. Even if you use an alias, you can be identified with very low effort. There's no anonymity on the net and your actions are being recorded for all eternity.
