I have a LinkedIn account for business, which is pretty much a minimum necessity if you're self-employed. No Facebook or other social media. My name is generic enough that whenever I've googled myself I've browsed through pages and pages without finding any hits that were actually me. I have a generic Hotmail account that I use for anything that requires an E-mail address and that I don't trust: the Hotmail address doesn't include any part of my name, and is set to display only my initials.
Social media and our info out there on public display
Yea, yea we are. At work we have just installed an application on all our bank mobile devices, we can tell you where employees are and where they have been for the last 14 days, devices are pinged every hour between 7AM and 6PM.
I was used as a test subject while at Gen Con!Yea, yea we are. At work we have just installed an application on all our bank mobile devices, we can tell you where employees are and where they have been for the last 14 days, devices are pinged every hour between 7AM and 6PM.
I spoke too simply. Obviously I can track any device that I put software on to track and thus as I am IT and the bank employees are using my devices, then I can track them.
That is not the same as YOU being able to track ME with no prior prep or targeting. You don't have any hooks in me, let alone know who I am to bother.
Our tech is not quite there yet to monitor every video camera in America to identify you and locate you on a map.
Though obviously, our cellphones are telling at least the phone company where we are. There's a layer of too much data and no direct need (the FBI isn't trying to find YOU right this instant).
Additionally, I was more speaking to the "put your name on something" kind of records tracking, rather than physically tracking you.
Until records were automated, it would take manpower (and will) to go track down whatever John Doe's secret was. You'd have to KNOW to go to Idaho and find a name change court document to get his real name to find his birth certificate.
So an FBI agent telling somebody a LOOONG time ago that they could track him by virtue of putting his name down, was utter BS in the realm of CSI-TV techno-fiction.
tomBitonti
Adventurer
Curious to think about the use of multiple online identities for different domains of use.
Have to be careful about whether one is accurately identified to the provider and using a pseudonym in public, or whether one's identity to the provider is false.
Most providers ask for (and technically speaking, require) accurate identification during registration. I don't know how enforceable that is, nor what sort of penalty could be assessed for a false registration. I suspect false registrations are very common.
Providing only a pseudonym means that external user's can't tell who you are, and that they will have a tough time of linking all of your information. But, if your identity was accurately provided during registration, the service provider will have no difficulty at all.
Assuming two different identities during registration, figuring how that changes what information is associated with the identities is a curious question. Certainly, each identity will have incomplete information. But, that information may be more accurate in the domain of use for that particular identity. I'm having to think a bit on what exactly that means, so I don't have a deeper analysis yet to present.
Depending on the usage, using pseudonym's may not be distinguishing. The pseudonym's might be correlated, say, by IP address.
Thx!
TomB
Have to be careful about whether one is accurately identified to the provider and using a pseudonym in public, or whether one's identity to the provider is false.
Most providers ask for (and technically speaking, require) accurate identification during registration. I don't know how enforceable that is, nor what sort of penalty could be assessed for a false registration. I suspect false registrations are very common.
Providing only a pseudonym means that external user's can't tell who you are, and that they will have a tough time of linking all of your information. But, if your identity was accurately provided during registration, the service provider will have no difficulty at all.
Assuming two different identities during registration, figuring how that changes what information is associated with the identities is a curious question. Certainly, each identity will have incomplete information. But, that information may be more accurate in the domain of use for that particular identity. I'm having to think a bit on what exactly that means, so I don't have a deeper analysis yet to present.
Depending on the usage, using pseudonym's may not be distinguishing. The pseudonym's might be correlated, say, by IP address.
Thx!
TomB
I think so, don't know if you are old enough to remember the Mask Of Tampa, where camera were being put in place and tested like the British system. This was prior to 9/11 and people would put on mask as a public protest to the cameras. There was such a uproar that the program was to be discontinued...then 9/11 and now Tampa has quite a few.
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Never heard of Mask of Tampa and I suspect I am old enough. though I can imagine people putting on masks to thwart cameras.
I think there's a demographic of people who are OVERLY concerned about privacy, at the extreme ends, these are conspiracy theory people who think the government is out to get them. I would bet these would be older people.
I think there's a demographic of people who are UNDERLY concerned about privacy, and will publicize their every personal detail to their later chagrin.
There's more likely to be a decent middle-ground. Don't over share and isolate your personal life data from your professional or hobby life data. Make laws to protect your direct data is not freely available to criminals or others for their unauthorized use.
tomBitonti
Adventurer
In this space, there seems to be a vast underappreciation of how much information is gathered, and how well it is linked.
At the same time, there is an incredible lack of interest in the issue. Most folks seem to shrug and move on.
My own sense is that critical thinking is being negatively reinforced. Waaaah, thinking is hard! (Somebody call a Wahmbulance.) But that might just be me being a tin-foil wearing crusty old fart complaining about the young 'uns. Hard to say.
Thx!
TomB
At the same time, there is an incredible lack of interest in the issue. Most folks seem to shrug and move on.
My own sense is that critical thinking is being negatively reinforced. Waaaah, thinking is hard! (Somebody call a Wahmbulance.) But that might just be me being a tin-foil wearing crusty old fart complaining about the young 'uns. Hard to say.
Thx!
TomB
I try to keep my online footprint as small as possible.
If you were to do a search on my real name- as I have- you'd find noooooot a lot of stuff on me, and a certain portion of it is dead wrong. I've tried to get some of it corrected- like, scarily, how many websites have my home address listed as my office address- but, y'know...the Internet. Much of that stuff is still wrong. Fortunately, most of the people who share my name are quite obviously not me: if I am in your interview room as a black male in his 40s, I am clearly NOT the 22yo guy who was arrested this year for vehicular homicide.
Amusingly, while my screen-name here is unusual, it is NOT unique. So, if you search for "dannyalcatraz", most results will come back to me. I am NOT, however, the guy on the Singaporean singles dating site...or the other (?) Singaporean guy sharing explicit photos of himself on another website.
If you were to do a search on my real name- as I have- you'd find noooooot a lot of stuff on me, and a certain portion of it is dead wrong. I've tried to get some of it corrected- like, scarily, how many websites have my home address listed as my office address- but, y'know...the Internet. Much of that stuff is still wrong. Fortunately, most of the people who share my name are quite obviously not me: if I am in your interview room as a black male in his 40s, I am clearly NOT the 22yo guy who was arrested this year for vehicular homicide.
Amusingly, while my screen-name here is unusual, it is NOT unique. So, if you search for "dannyalcatraz", most results will come back to me. I am NOT, however, the guy on the Singaporean singles dating site...or the other (?) Singaporean guy sharing explicit photos of himself on another website.
Vyvyan Basterd
Adventurer
My name is so common that even when I add my exact address to a Google search I get 1 hit. And that's a real estate website. Gotta like that.
