Privacy.......Lost

Dear @NationalChildID: Why do you unfollow and refollow every day? It’s quite annoying. Surely...

Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:07:01 -0400

Dear @NationalChildID: Why do you unfollow and refollow every day? It’s quite annoying. Surely you have better things to do. #privacy

Mortgage brokers to be fingerprinted and registered

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:17:38 -0400

Mortgage brokers to be fingerprinted and registered:

Fingerprinted. To obtain a job.

Slip-sliding away down that slippery slope to totalitarianism.

Dot-com Bankruptcy = Sale of Database of 1 Million Gay Teens?

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 18:09:26 -0400

Dot-com Bankruptcy = Sale of Database of 1 Million Gay Teens?:

You are leaving information about yourself everywhere you go online—often voluntarily and with no concern how it could be used years down the road, when you’ll have forgotten about it and they’ll be using it.

How many of these former “young homosexual boys” would now object to having their information sold? Was it worth whatever they got from XY.com?

Think before you give out your information. Find a way to stay as uncover as possible.

RT @PositionKing Camouflage Yourself from Facial Recognition Technology #privacy #security #tcot...

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:04:39 -0400

RT @PositionKing Camouflage Yourself from Facial Recognition Technology #privacy #security #tcot http://bit.ly/a3pIxB

The pitfalls of modern living, part 14,843: RT @bcastleberry Just got a new #Amex in the mail and...

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:04:39 -0400

The pitfalls of modern living, part 14,843: RT @bcastleberry Just got a new #Amex in the mail and promptly cut the #RFID out #privacy

RT @energypro Will #privacy advocates worry about the FBI using #RFID to go through your #trash?...

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:04:39 -0400

RT @energypro Will #privacy advocates worry about the FBI using #RFID to go through your #trash? http://bit.ly/abhUPI

This week’s Finger in the Privacy Dike Award (& virtual golden sandbag trophy) goes...

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 21:04:39 -0400

This week’s Finger in the Privacy Dike Award (& virtual golden sandbag trophy) goes to…Mailinator http://bit.ly/9S5FL4 #privacy

Mailinator: instantaneous anonymous email addresses

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:32:00 -0400

Mailinator: instantaneous anonymous email addresses:

Free, no-signup, temporary email.

Don’t want to give out your real email address to access a website? Don’t want to waste time signing up for a junk email address you plan to use only one time?

Just use an xxx@mailinator.com address in a website’s sign-up form [replacing the xxx with whatever you want]. Then go to www.mailinator.com and check your instantaneous address for whatever confirmation email you have to verify.

Email arriving at mailinator.com is only kept for a few hours before it’s deleted (so it’s not appropriate for sites that may send you email you actually want beyond the initial confirmation email—such as Tumblr or Twitter notices of new followers or messages).

Anyone can use the same email address you use, and anyone can check any email box you want. (Therefore it’s probably best that you don’t use the mailinator addresses for sites that email a receipt for the credit card purchase you just made. Also keep in mind that if the confirmation email includes your ID and password, anyone that stumbles on [or trolls mailinator just for this] your address will be able to use that info to log into your account—and issue a request to reset the password. So be sure it’s an account you wouldn’t mind sharing with 10 of your closest strangers.)

You don’t have to sign up for the address in advance. You can send something to yourself@mailinator.com right now and it will be there waiting for you when you go see what it looks like.

No passwords. No cookies required. No nothing.

Great for keeping the spam at bay. Great method for, say, Russian spy communication. (Facebook has attempted to ban mailinator from their site, but mailinator has alternate domain names that operate the same way. You’ll just have to go to the mailinator site to find them if you run into a problem using a mailinator address.)

Thanks, Mailinator, for a great little service.

RT @iappANZ_Privacy: Privacy experts are raising questions about a feature in Google’s...

Sat, 03 Jul 2010 00:34:35 -0400

RT @iappANZ_Privacy: Privacy experts are raising questions about a feature in Google’s Analytics Dashboard http://ow.ly/263hn

"The fact of the matter is that if you’re online all the time, computers are generating a lot..."

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:34:00 -0400

““The fact of the matter is that if you’re online all the time, computers are generating a lot of information about you. This is not a Google decision, this is a societal decision….All of our testing indicates that the vast majority of people are perfectly happy with our policy.””

- —quoting Google’s Eric Schmidt from the same article where he tells the UK’s Telegraph: “You can trust us with your data”

This coming from the man that said: “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” (See the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s roundup on that little tidbit.)

In reality, if you will ever care that private information about you—stuff that seemed innocuous at the time and have long since forgotten about—gets distributed (for profit) to your friends, employers, neighbors and strangers and used in ways you never fathomed, then maybe you shouldn’t be using any Google product.

Wake up, sheep. The clock will be striking midnight soon.

White House wants to help you "blog anonymously"

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 10:53:18 -0400

White House wants to help you "blog anonymously":

Just register all your intimate data with an approved ID verifier and then you’re anonymous until the government asks who that blogger is.

"Without a definition of critical infrastructure there are concerns that “it includes elements..."

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 11:34:00 -0400

“

Without a definition of critical infrastructure there are concerns that “it includes elements of the Internet that Americans rely on every day to engage in free speech and to access information,” said the letter, signed by the Center for Democracy and Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other groups.

“Changes are needed to ensure that cybersecurity measures do not unnecessarily infringe on free speech, privacy, and other civil liberties interests,” the letter added.

”

- —from “Obama Internet kill switch plan approved by US Senate” at Techworld.com

"Kindle users are annotating what they read. Amazon then collects these annotations and reprints..."

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 12:07:00 -0400

“Kindle users are annotating what they read. Amazon then collects these annotations and reprints “the passages that are most highlighted by the millions of Kindle customers” on its “Popular Highlights” website.”

- —from “Don’t read this: What Kindle’s most-highlighted passages tell us about popular taste” at The Web of Language

Just another reason to avoid ebook readers. Until you can read and annotate in complete privacy without the retailer, publisher, author or any other busybody sticking their nose in my book to see what I’m doing or—heaven forbid—collecting my information for their own manipulation and use, this voracious reader will never buy one of these evil machines.

Apple collecting, sharing iPhone users' precise locations

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 11:38:00 -0400

Apple collecting, sharing iPhone users' precise locations:

Don’t worry, though. They won’t use the data…much.

Hmmm: Feds, local law enforcement accessing cell phone tracking “thousands of times a month”

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:00:00 -0400

Hmmm: Feds, local law enforcement accessing cell phone tracking “thousands of times a month”:

Don’t worry. They’ll never want to inspect *your* records.

Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:31:32 -0400

Fuel tax could be replaced with by-the-mile road tax:

The road toward the government’s GPS tracking of all citizens all the time.

"Under the guise of “marketing research,” these new search engines feed on social and..."

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:20:04 -0400

“Under the guise of “marketing research,” these new search engines feed on social and people networks — as well as contents of your e-mail address books — to collect data ranging from favorite foods to photos with old flames.”

- from the New York Post’s “Prying Eyes on the Web”

Court upholds warrantless GPS tracking by police

Mon, 11 May 2009 16:03:46 -0400

Court upholds warrantless GPS tracking by police:

The premise that it’s okay for the government to secretly attach a GPS monitor to your vehicle and download the data on occasion for review: it’s not search and seizure.

What ever happened to the supposed right to privacy?

If the government has a valid reason to track your every movement, inch by inch, second by second, why shouldn’t they have to get a warrant?

"Children will be tracked by satellite on public transport and encouraged to spy on their friends and..."

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:44:06 -0400

“Children will be tracked by satellite on public transport and encouraged to spy on their friends and report bad behaviour, under a pilot scheme by the Welsh Assembly.”

- Children tracked by sat nav to stop bad behaviour - Telegraph

The comment section for the story is quite astonishing for privacy lovers, in that some people think a “1984”-style world would be a fine one indeed.

Web founder makes online privacy plea

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:43:25 -0400

Web founder makes online privacy plea:

” Plans by Internet service providers to deliver targeted adverts to consumers based on their Web searches threaten online privacy and should be opposed, the founder of the Web said Wednesday.”