Online privacy and how it is changing our lives

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Are you worried about the fact that anyone can find out stuff about you online with the click of a mouse? Also, if he/she pays a few bucks, he/she can find out even more about you, such as where you live, how much your house is worth, who your relatives are, etc.

Facebook privacy is also getting more lenient. Has anyone left Facebook due to privacy issues?

I can't say I'm all that concerned. It's not like there's anyone out to get me. Still, I try not to give away too much personal information on the internet. None of you here know who I really am, and that's the way I like it.

Yeah, it bothers me some. I do think, however, that most of the information collected about us is used for targeted marketing as opposed to anything sinister. I find that more annoying than anything else.

But having said that, I think this genie is long out of the bottle. If you use a credit card or a cell phone, a lot of the details of your life are being stored in some database somewhere, and have been for years. It's virtually impossible to be anonyous. Indeed, if you don't use a credit card, you're looked upon as strange.

I tried looking myself up on one of these background information sites and was amused to find they'd mixed up my information with somebody by the same name on Facebook. They listed my family members and then my Facebook "friends", which is amusing because I don't and have never used that service.

It panicked me a few years ago so that I would not participate on forums like this. Only ever READ the Internet. It's my thoughts that I don't want to give away though, not data points on me.

Then I just thought... whatever. I surrender control.

Same here.

I am concerned about the sinister motives of those who would steal my credit card info. I got scammed by people who made a very convincing mock-up of Amazon's website and sent me an email from "Amazon". Since the actual Amazon sends me an email about once every three hours recommending I buy something or other, I thought nothing of it. I had previously bought from these actual emails. The faux email actually got my credit card number but something in the back of my mind felt wrong. But I had already hit "send". I pulled the email back up and saw the address was subtly wrong. I called my credit card company and changed my number within 15 minutes so nothing came of it. But that is a real danger for anyone who does internet shopping.

(Thread moved from Autism discussion to Random)

Whatever you don't put on websites like Facebook is automatically private.

I can't say that I am too worried, then again that's just my "naive" opinion.

I google myself now and then, and there's nothing one can really find. My name is not uncommon, so there's no problem there. I also try to keep the various online facets of my life separate from my real life. I don't like the idea of someone finding out what kind of silly hobbies I have.

yeah but surely if our data is NOT being used *just* for targeted marketing, does that mean there's a sniveling jobsworth in an office somewhere really THAT interested in little old me? "im going to concoct an evil plan because he buys pizzas 5 at a time from asda... *mwahahaha* "


and not anyone else of however many billion there are of us now...? we might as well all be invisible so no-one sees us.




as long as the data doesn't get into criminals hands or the like, you're just another brick in the wall/binary bit in a program/whatever...

It's not that big of a deal if one is under, say, age 25-30 or not in a high profile job. However, if you are, say, in academia where you deal with departmental politics, students, and colleagues of all sorts, the things they can find online about you may end up harming/discrediting you.

And why should I want some random person to know the names of my parents (Yahoo People Search, etc.) where they live, etc.? And what if the info these sites provide happens to be incorrect?

I have a Google counter where it reports how many people googled my name and with what keywords. I sometimes feel a bit self conscious by all the exposure.

I'm not really that worried as long as I don't post any personal imformation.