Big Brother Is Watching...

I can see both sides of this issue. I believe everyone has a right to privacy regardless of internet use. But...on the other hand imagine all the time you could save when single and dating...you'd know in an instant the guy standing in front of you is a douchcanoe and quickly move on :D

Peace and Blessings,
T. B

I detest it, frankly.

I don't understand the answers that say "hey, if you're online too bad." We're getting to where you cannot opt out of being online! What happens when all of our medical records are converted to digital files (which is part of some legislation passed a year or two ago)? Are we to blame when someone hacks into our private info and sells it (for marketing purposes) or publicizes it (for blackmail purposes)?

The law has not kept up with technology. The 4th Amendment arguably applies to our digital "papers" too, especially as we move to a paper-less society. And if that's not the case then we, as consumers, need to demand that things not be digitized and stored in "the cloud."

Obviously I'm not talking about stuff that people post in public forums.

JMO.

If you don't like it then stay off the computer. Really the minute you start any online profile you are, by proxy, giving up your anonymity.

Seems like a lot of people have become cake and eat it people. I want to be online but I want to be protected from being searched, being found, well it doesn't work that way. If they totally protect us then you will find everything you enjoy about being online will be gone.

So in the end it is a simple question, is having an online life worth giving up some privacy. If the answer is no, then stay off.
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Okay to anyone who is saying this effects anyone online it doesn't. When you log into your banking, well if you have any sense, you will notice the https, meaning secured. Not seeing that s then you are putting your information out there.

Granted Facebook has the s but you have the choice whether to use it with your privacy settings.

Data mining is a crapshoot. I don't like the idea, but I already don't like how people can dig up information on me. That said, it's often false. For example, if you do a search on me, you'll find me related to my grandfather (true) who is 103 years old (false, he's been dead 10 years) and living in the right town, but wrong address. They may list DH's ex under her former married name at an address she had 2 years ago. Etc. Etc.

The bigger question for me is why are expecting/wanting/needing to be so so terribly interconnected. Want to know about me? Walk up and introduce yourself.

My SS and I disagree on Google Glasses (is that the product you are talking about)? He thinks it would be less invasive to be online in public. I think it will be stupid. I said, "I bet I will be able to tell when someone is tuned out and looking up stuff online just like I can tell when you are texting under the table. Both behaviors show that what's online is more important than what's in front of you. Which is a shame, because I think people are lacking basic social skills." That shut him up. Just yesterday I was out with a friend and when one of us ran to the restroom or something, the other might check her phone but when we were face to face, we didn't even have them out. For four hours we chatted and enjoyed each other's company. What a loss if people can't manage to turn off the connection to make a real-world connection.

Since many people can be tagged in the same picture (for example, my son's aunt just tagged herself in a picture I posted form my son's college graduation...she was not there and was not in the picture) so I think this is the potential for false info.

Watch the movie "Gatica". I wonder when we'll get THAT far into no longer having any privacy...

Your profile and information is already out there for datamining and demographics. If you're not online and monitoring it, somene else could go in. To me, its about being in control of as much of the information as possible. The old days of your information being stolen with your purse/wallet or from your mailbox is very rare these days. It's Online phishing and skimming where they get a lot of the information. Knowledge is power.
I encouraged my dad to set-up Online Banking for my 90 year old grandmother to monitor the account eventhough she would never use it. My reasoning is that if she doesn't have it set-up, someone else could.

Having had my identity stolen before, I don't like anyone having information about me that I don't deliberately provide to them.

I'm fine with it. I am pretty much an open book. There is no information about me that I wouldn't mind being public knowledge, and I have never been bothered by my picture appearing in public. Obviously, I would not want to become a victim of identity theft, or find naked pics of myself on the internet (not that there would be any naked pics of myself), but for the most part I am fine with the idea.

I don't expect anything I put online to be private, people already have access to all this information (just google yourself). It is just a fact of the world we live in. If you don't want your info out there then you have to move completely off the grid, no mortgage, no internet, ect.

It's not only your online life that has become an open book. Next time you go out look around there are cameras everywhere. Cameras in stores to watch for shoplifting, cameras at traffic lights to watch for driving violations, ATM cameras etc etc etc. No matter waht you do or where you go they are watching.

I know that sounds really paranoid. And the number of cameras varies from place to place. But it is rather disconserting.

Exactly why I don't do FaceBook or any other social media sight. ONce the info is out there, you have no control over how it's used.

Kids are too young to understand why they need to protect their privacy. There will be a whole generation of folks with NO PRIVACY pretty soon and it will be their own fault.

So, guess this is the "natural consequence" of using social media instead of meeting a friend for coffee or calling someone on the phone or writing a real letter!

I wonder if it works if you don't wear make up. I am one of those people who look totally different aka hideous, without make up.