privacy

A Florida woman yesterday filed a class-action lawsuit against Google Inc., charging that the new Buzz social networking tool set violates the privacy rights of users.

Eva Hibnick, a resident of Sarasota County, Fla., filed the suit in a San Jose, Calif., federal court on behalf of herself and the approximately 31 million U.S. users of Google's popular Gmail e-mail service. The lawsuit alleges that Google violated federal privacy and computer fraud laws by adding Buzz to the Gmail service last week.

A leading privacy group has urged US regulators to investigate Google's new social networking service Buzz, one week after its launch.

The Electronic Privacy Information Centre (Epic) has made its complaint to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). It says that Buzz - which is part of Google's Gmail service - is "deceptive" and breaks consumer protection law. The search giant has twice made changes to the service to placate an outcry from users about privacy concerns.

A class action lawsuit has been filed against Facebook over changes that the social networking site made to its privacy settings last November and December.

Wow, this is crazy. This deputy director must be a lunatic. We are moving fast forward into a society where multicorporate companies safeguard my privacy data.

Because I should no longer expect anonymity.

All my personal secrets will be revealed and kept at safe storage at the local governmental office, and (notice - not OR) at any corporation that believes they need to cater my privacy.

"Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information."

And we all know just how safe corporations keeps my secrets. Like the TJX. And just about any other corporation out there.

I do not like it. I still want to keep my door closed when I go to the toilet. You see, I expect anonymity - even if you all know what I am doing in there. And I would like things to continue that way. So no thank you, Mr. Kerr, I will not leave my anonymity so you can control my privacy.

Thanks to Bruce who brought this news to my attention.

This weekend, you can enjoy your IP. Your IP will moan. You never thought it possible (at least I hope so), but your IP will do it's very best to be sexy. 

When you stop laughing (or moan), I suggest you read the small print in the bottom. There is a lesson to be learned!

Enjoy your weekend! 

I have strong feelings against abuse. And when I see young people falling for simple tricks and ending up as victims, I have to speak up.

Internet has revolutionized the way we communicate and how we network between people. I should know, I use tools like LinkedIn, Xing and Facebook actively. In a market there will always be companies that pushes the line. In Norway, one such site is Camfight / Penest.no, which I have covered in the past.

Last week, a girl was featured on national TV. Her story is as follows:

When she was 14, she met a guy on Internet. The boy was a couple of years older, and convinced her to strip for him on webcam. The girl was in love, and believe him to be too. She obeyed his request.

As soon as the stripping was done, the boy ended all contact. Some time later, the video with the girl stripping shows up on Internet. Without her consent.

Her friend turned their back to her, and she ended up having to relocate and change her name.

As tragic as this is, this kind of stories are only starting to surface. When you are young, you do not have the experience, knowledge and understanding necessary to safely use the technology. He*k, many adults lack the very same requirements.

To add to experience, "Line" got no support from her school nor from the police.

I believe that this serves to show how vulnerable young people are, and how wrong things can end up. It never pays to be naive. And when in doubt, say NO!

I have been known to rant about peoples lack of care or understanding when it comes to publishing information on the Internet. Most people are either incredibly naive, plain stupid or just do not care. (I do realize they probably just do not want to know).

This Youtube came to my RSS reader today (thanks Gnucitizen).

So as a reminder to my readers, please take a look at this video. It is your identity at stake. Your future.

Social networks has taken over much of the communication and networking these days. By setting up one (or many) profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Xing, MySpace or any other tool out there, you get to share ideas, thoughts and images with your peers, friends and the public.

Somehow, a large number of people seems to forget the last word - public. Somehow, they expect to be protected against cut'n'past of questions, comments, images and profiles. Even though they put the information into these tools themselves.

Over at LinkedIn, there has been several discussions about privacy - or what people think is privacy. Ray van den Bel, a top-linkedIn and online strategist, has a problem with LinkedIn sending his public questions to his connections. Somehow Ray is confusing privacy with public information. He posted a question (several in fact) on the Answer section of LinkedIn - a public service. Then he starts complaining when LinkedIn sends his question to other LinkedIn users. Wake up Ray, there is two reasons to post questions on LinkedIn (and similar services) - to get answers from as many as possible, and to promote yourself.

 There are other discussions on the LinkedIn Answer covering the same thing - for example someone worrying about someone copying their answer and republish it somewhere else - on blogs, Digg etc. I mean, WAKE UP! You post your ideas, thoughts, answers ONLINE! And on a public website. Hey - you have NO control over that information. If you do not like that, then keep your comments to yourself. Or pick up the phone. 

Internet is transparent. It will become more transparent. You are responsible for your own actions, and need to be in charge. 

For your information - every answer you put on LinkedIn is publicly available. If you post someting on Xing, it is even indexed by search engines. Using CoComment? It is open for the public to subscribe to YOUR comments!

In this cyberworld, you need to recognize that everything is public. If you do not like it, do not use it. It may not be entirely like the toilet wall?

Discuss your view below!