Recently I have been toying around with the idea of downloading the Loopt application on my phone. For those of you out there who never heard of loopt, it’s a program designed for cell phone users that provides the physical location of your circle of friends (who also need to register for the service). A map pops up on your phone and in an instant you are able to see that your wife is on the interstate, your kids are at school, your cousin is at the beach–if they are registered and their phone is on, you can locate them.
Last week I decided to make the jump and install it on my phone. My wife never dug the idea, but my curiosity got the best of me. Oh yes, it was everything I just told you about but I just could not get out of my head that somehow I am giving away more information about myself: my daily travel routine.
After about a couple of days, my curiosity morphed into real concern. So I deleted it. Now granted, there was a setting on it for me to turn the “find me” software off. But not only did they not make it easy to find it (by the way, the software constantly runs in the background), but it kinda defeats the purpose of the software in the first place having it shut off.
Now this post isn’t just about loopt. What I find interesting is how we as a society are freely giving away details about our personal lives in a way that the old Soviet KGB, German SS, or even our own CIA could only dream about decades ago.
Let’s look at Facebook, for example. Here you have a tool where every friend (or just every person) you have ever met or known are all neatly packaged into what Facebook calls you “Friends list”. If someone wanted to get additional information on you without coming to you directly, you just made it easier for them. Many of those quick games where, based on your responses you are compared to a movie star, musician, cartoon character, etc. are nothing more than very low level personality profile tests. Again, more information about you just being handed out while you are grinning that the game is comparing you to Tony Montoya from Scarface.
And let’s not overlook how many Facebook users just have the urge to share with the world every step they take all throughout the day (“Eating lunch with Glenn @Friday’s on 6th Street”, “Left wallet @home. Hope Glenn will cover me” , “In the bathroom and just realized there is no toilet paper,” “Did I lock my car?”. Couple that with pictures and videos of both yourself and those you truly love (both of which you can easily upload from your camera-enabled cell phone) and cell phone social networking software like loopt and it would not take someone long at all to have you and your vulnerabilities figured out.
And speaking of vulnerabilities, did you know that there were at least 50 social networking websites out there that deal exclusively with personal finance? In other words, you share part or all of your financial information (I’m sure this excludes account numbers, of course) with others in your network for the sole purpose of getting advice from peers and “experts”. I think that is a very neat idea. But again, do we really know the full intentions of people out there who are claiming they are just trying to help you with your finances?
Some of you may think I am going a little overboard with this, but this is how I see it. Credit card companies have been routinely hit by hackers who were able to steal the personal data of millions of consumers on many occasions (here’s a link to a Google search on the topic). Hackers have also successfully obtained data from what supposed to be one of the most secure networks in the nation if not, the world. That network is located within the halls of the Pentagon. If hackers can pull these stunts off with ease with our most secure networks, what makes you believe that simply selecting “Do not share” on a much lower secure social network media website is protecting your information?
They just made it fun to give away your privacy.
Giving Yourself Away
by Duane on November 11th, 2009 at 10:24 amRecently I have been toying around with the idea of downloading the Loopt application on my phone. For those of you out there who never heard of loopt, it’s a program designed for cell phone users that provides the physical location of your circle of friends (who also need to register for the service). A map pops up on your phone and in an instant you are able to see that your wife is on the interstate, your kids are at school, your cousin is at the beach–if they are registered and their phone is on, you can locate them.
Last week I decided to make the jump and install it on my phone. My wife never dug the idea, but my curiosity got the best of me. Oh yes, it was everything I just told you about but I just could not get out of my head that somehow I am giving away more information about myself: my daily travel routine.
After about a couple of days, my curiosity morphed into real concern. So I deleted it. Now granted, there was a setting on it for me to turn the “find me” software off. But not only did they not make it easy to find it (by the way, the software constantly runs in the background), but it kinda defeats the purpose of the software in the first place having it shut off.
Now this post isn’t just about loopt. What I find interesting is how we as a society are freely giving away details about our personal lives in a way that the old Soviet KGB, German SS, or even our own CIA could only dream about decades ago.
Let’s look at Facebook, for example. Here you have a tool where every friend (or just every person) you have ever met or known are all neatly packaged into what Facebook calls you “Friends list”. If someone wanted to get additional information on you without coming to you directly, you just made it easier for them. Many of those quick games where, based on your responses you are compared to a movie star, musician, cartoon character, etc. are nothing more than very low level personality profile tests. Again, more information about you just being handed out while you are grinning that the game is comparing you to Tony Montoya from Scarface.
And let’s not overlook how many Facebook users just have the urge to share with the world every step they take all throughout the day (“Eating lunch with Glenn @Friday’s on 6th Street”, “Left wallet @home. Hope Glenn will cover me” , “In the bathroom and just realized there is no toilet paper,” “Did I lock my car?”. Couple that with pictures and videos of both yourself and those you truly love (both of which you can easily upload from your camera-enabled cell phone) and cell phone social networking software like loopt and it would not take someone long at all to have you and your vulnerabilities figured out.
And speaking of vulnerabilities, did you know that there were at least 50 social networking websites out there that deal exclusively with personal finance? In other words, you share part or all of your financial information (I’m sure this excludes account numbers, of course) with others in your network for the sole purpose of getting advice from peers and “experts”. I think that is a very neat idea. But again, do we really know the full intentions of people out there who are claiming they are just trying to help you with your finances?
Some of you may think I am going a little overboard with this, but this is how I see it. Credit card companies have been routinely hit by hackers who were able to steal the personal data of millions of consumers on many occasions (here’s a link to a Google search on the topic). Hackers have also successfully obtained data from what supposed to be one of the most secure networks in the nation if not, the world. That network is located within the halls of the Pentagon. If hackers can pull these stunts off with ease with our most secure networks, what makes you believe that simply selecting “Do not share” on a much lower secure social network media website is protecting your information?
They just made it fun to give away your privacy.