How much privacy do we have?

[WildernessWildChild]

I think this question is more directed to those of you in the USA- do you have privacy?

Twice in the last week I've checked the Spam account and have had a site show that is essentially soliciting itself as a people finder- they already have too much info posted already (name, age, sometimes an address and phone number) and for around thirty bucks it claims to be able to give employment info, a criminal check, and all sorts of other revealing stuff. Is this for real? It only seems to show up when I've received an email from someone in the US (its happened a few times before, this time it kind of caught me off guard as the name mentioned really jumped out at me) that gives their full name (not because of the email address but if they've chose to attach their name when setting up the account). I think we've got slightly more stringent privacy laws here as I attempted to Google several people I know in Canada and was lucky to get the name of the city they're in.

It kind of creeps me out to think that kind of information would be so readily available to virtually anyone who can afford it. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[LonelyInAtl]

I work in IT and I can tell you that any expectation of privacy these days is a fallacy.

 

[EveWasFramed]

I used to find people for a living (as part of my job). Trust me - if you know where to look and don't mind paying for the info, there's almost no limit to what you can find out about someone.

 

[bulmabriefs144]

Eve, where do I live?

(I use the same username for everything)

 

[perfanoff]

The biggest thing going for privacy these days is obscurity. If someone is really interested in you, chances are they'll find you.

---

Eve, where do I live?

(I use the same username for everything)

Even google knows that already.

 

[kamya]

There is no privacy. The NSA tracks all emails, phone calls, and txt messages. Credit card companies sell your spending habits. (where, when, what, how much) Facebook tracks everything you do on Facebook, an on pages connected with Facebook. Not just facebook, pretty much any free service that you use is mining data about you. Your phones are tracking your location and movements. The three things that it takes to connect data together is gender, birth date, and zip code. That's it. There is no privacy unless you completely drop out.

Here's a podcast I listened to recently on the subject. The Ethics of Big Data

 

[bulmabriefs144]

The biggest thing going for privacy these days is obscurity. If someone is really interested in you, chances are they'll find you.

---

Eve, where do I live?

(I use the same username for everything)

Even google knows that already.

---

I noticed (25600 results). On the flip side, there's nothing to connect me should I decide to use another email.

1. Don't use Facebook.
2. Use ATMs not credit cards.
3. Throw away smart phones.
4. Obscurity. News articles can also be posted online, so not doing anything good/bad that is remarkable is a big step.

You'll still get tracked by the emails and phonecalls, but this reduces 2/3 of the tracking while still letting you remain somewhat normal.

 

[kamya]

Like I said. All you need to do is sign up for anything that involves using your gender, birth date, and zip code for someone buying data to derive your new email and connect it with the old one.

 

[Badjedidude]

GO EVERYWHERE NAKED!!!

Privacy is overrated anyway.

 

[EveWasFramed]

Your FONT is overrated. :club:

 

[Badjedidude]

^^^It's not a font. (un)

It's the largest size of the forum's font.

AND IT'S FUN!! (un)

 

[EveWasFramed]

Compensating for something? Being "cute maybe? lol

 

[VanillaCreme]

Privacy? What's that? I don't know... I have none. Someone's always all up in my grill.

 

[Badjedidude]

Being "cute maybe?

No, if I were being cute, I'd post this:

[img=700x500]

 

[ladyforsaken]

Being "cute maybe?

No, if I were being cute, I'd post this:

[img=700x500]

That is SOOOO adorable!!! *SQUISHHH*

 

[EveWasFramed]

Awwwwwwwwwwwww....how.... CUTE!

 

[Badjedidude]

^^^IKR!!!

I want one. lol

 

[BrokenInside]

I dont live in US but i agree with LIA. There's no privacy left.

 

[Love]

Say hi to the drones

In all seriousness, drones will be employed within American skies.

And remember, we do it because we want to protect you.

Yeah right, rofl.

If I wanted science fiction I would go and get it but I definitely wasn't expecting it to come and get me.

 

[Dissident]

Add NoScript to your Firefox installation. Look at the myriad number of websites constantly trying to run Javascript from Facebook and Google that don't actually have anything to do with either of them. To be fair a lot of websites use Javascript libraries from Google's CDN so that they can use the latest, most stable versions of those libraries without having to host them on their own servers (plus, if a user has already downloaded the Javascript files from another site to their cache, they don't have to download it again). The lack of privacy is also exacerbated by ISPs who run invisible code on their customers.