Internet Privacy

[jordancoles]

Shit, what if they know I watch some shady stuff. Will the FBI come to my place and arrest me? My mom will be mad.

If you watch weird porn you might get a phone call from Obama

[Salad]

This kind of bothers me because I feel entitled to that information. I feel the dataset is my property

The only dataset you should really be worried about slipping out is account information and personal data that could lead to your location, wealth, or physical property being compromised. Otherwise that information is near useless to you, outside of self analysis.

No one would ever buy your individual internet habits, you aren't nearly important enough, and honestly I doubt anyone would invest that type of specialty of one individual person no matter who they are.

I feel like my actions are open for all to see and watch, if they want to sell those observations to other companies, the only thing I can do is stop going into spaces where i'd ever be in danger of being watched

AKA: everywhere online/in public

[shadyg0d]

What people often overlook is that being one of the _billions_ being watched is an element of privacy in and of itself.

Still it's pretty scary to think about

[jordancoles]

I know that many companies will sell the data they collect about your browsing history, but I don't think your name/personal identification is ever attached to it

The info is mainly for targeting searches and ad placement

[Granger]

The issue with bulk data collection isn't that it could be analysed today, buy that it will be analysed (and connected to and correlated with other data sets) in the near future, by algorithms that will be way more powerful than anything Joe Average can dream up today. Any data you leak will be used against you, will it be by advertisers manipulating you to buy shit you don't need, or by (as an extreme perspective) gouvernment wanting to drone you because you didn't obey.

[MagicManICT]

It's just going to get worse. As long as someone can make a profit, somebody will have their nose in everyone else's business to try to improve the bottom line. I'm not so much worried about retailers and customer service companies learning about habits and such. I'm more worried about the police states trying to control populations.

[Jalpha]

The difference being highlighted above. It's a shady practice to hide demands for the acceptance of policies and not make them clear and apparent. Very few sites do this.

Shady practice indeed. I think it can be argue though that you implicit consent by visit the site at all. And in many case, explicit consent with click ''I accept'' on terms of service box.

I don't believe it should be this easy even if it is. At the very least I should be informed of my involvement. You could argue that this would make navigating the web bothersome and desensitize people to the notifications, just like the EULA. Admittedly it's not the best solution.

I think again it's likely more an issue of awareness. If you don't know who is taking the data, where it's going and what it's being used for then how can you even formulate an effective argument against it. If people actually knew more maybe they would object. Should not this tracking at least be more transparent and less secretive?

Maybe they will object, maybe they will not. I know men who are aware and do not care. I know men who are aware and are happy they are being tracked. I am not sure how much of it is really big secret. Obviously you know of it, yes?

To what extent? It's clear that full disclosure is not available. Do I need to pay to gain information about my own browsing habits and what the information is used for? It seems absurd.

If I followed you around on the streets while you did your shopping and went to work, taking notes recording your actions and even what you looked at in the shop window, would you then object? How about if I then sold that information to other people who were interested?

This analogy is slight different. Obvious there is some personal risk from the men knowing my personal location. It is also much easy to connect these data point with my individual person. Internet tracking does not convey this in as personal a way. Physical stalking is more dangerous than cyberweb stalking. That being said, I would rather no men in this world know what I am doing. But I can not live my life without going into public. Not easy anyway. This is just the price of it.

I know that many companies will sell the data they collect about your browsing history, but I don't think your name/personal identification is ever attached to it
The info is mainly for targeting searches and ad placement

A lot of the information is associated to an identity. You can see the link using the picture I posted, where Google in particular appears to have associated some kind of identifier to me and that is likely used as a reference under which to store related information. Personally identifiable information may be contained under the heading of that ID and available to anybody with access to the information and the processing power to run a search through the database. Just because it's assumed it isn't being done now doesn't mean at all that it won't be done in the future, as Granger has mentioned also.

Furthermore who is guaranteeing the security of this data in a world where hacking is becoming fairly commonplace?

And another point on this topic... What I am unable to know is to what extent these sites share their information.

Now one of the truly disturbing things I have read was a plan Facebook had to find out if it would be possible to resurrect the personality of a deceased person using their Facebook profile as a reference. Okay so lets take that a step further, lets make my entire browsing history available for the compilation of this post-death pseudo-me. You think I'm joking? This is possible, it's totally possible and it's terrifying to imagine that upon my death some kind of abomination could be made which represents me in my place. Usurped by a binary entity which is not me.

Less fantastic perhaps is the potential for this information to be used to qualm dissent in a future where the social order is likely to be in peril for many reasons. Should revolution be prevented? Isn't it the right of the people to have the ability to rise up and depose a leadership which does not serve them as it should?

At the very least my opinion is that the collection of this data should be made much more transparent and regulated more severely.

[MagicManICT]

Why? You put yourself out there. You willingly, by connecting via the Internet, transmit certain information to 3rd parties. If you don't like that fact, find solutions that minimize the data transferred. Use anonymity tools, and nobody can, ideally, track anything. (Fact is that certain Internet solutions have glaring bugs and security holes in them, such as JavaScript and Flash.)

[Jalpha]

Because to put it simply this is bigger than me. Sure I can take steps to minimize the resolution of the profile which has been made on me, and I have. Obviously not to the fullest extent possible through ignorance on my part and I find information in this area very valuable. But that's me. One drop in the ocean. What about everyone else? It's like the metaphor of the boiled frog. In this matter I perceive that a personal threat may arise at some point in the future through others. At the heart of it I believe there is the potential for such an unregulated system to be used as a tool by persons who do not have the best interests of the greatest number of people in mind (one of the the founding principles of democracy). There is also the potential for the information to be used to suppress revolutionaries, should they arise. The result being a stagnant and decaying society which can only result in ruin or a massive step backwards for civil rights.

Not only that but when have scientists and corporations gone too far? There is already contention in regard to my very genes, which may end up not even belonging to me but instead each part of them claimed by different companies. Is my personal data to be treated the same way? So I am allowed a future in which my being, everything which makes up my self does not belong to me, instead all I am allowed to own are material possessions and then it is likely those items will instead be rented and nothing will actually belong to any individual. Including their self, all the parts which contribute to what is the soul of their being.

It's not that crazy now no. But it has the potential to be, and I feel that we will all be responsible if steps aren't taken to regulate such things now because later may be too late.

But then maybe it doesn't really matter, maybe possession is an element of society best left in the past. I'm not saying I'm right, but I think the ethical nature of this issue has not been fully considered.

[Zeler]

WTS