October 21, 2006

Privacy

Much has been said around the lose of privacy particularly in this growing world of identity theft. People have been thinking about trust and computers since the beginning. Scott McNealy once said "You have zero privacy now. Get over it" (the PC Week "Quote of the Week," Feb. 1, 1999). The ACLU is fighting against the lose of privacy as are many other groups. Now I learn of a site called Abika (part of the Intelius network) that will not only lookup background information for a fee but also will compile physiological profiles. If that site doesn't suit your needs try one of the many others available.

I've previously talked about what a liability this blog is. Yet at his point the concept of erasing something from the web is all but impossible. Server down? Just search for it on Google and click the little "Cached" link. Yes you can turn that off they are only guidelines. Maybe your site isn't big enough to make it on the Internet Archive or maybe NeoPhi does qualify. My point is even if I wanted to remove the potentially questionable pages on this blog, I've still left other digital trails. Hell look at the bottom of that page and you can even track my future Usenet postings.

Maybe McNealy was right. My digital trail is huge and I would never be able to erase it all. People can find me, but I'm going to adopt the Wikipedia mentality; assume good faith. I will continue to do what I can to protect my online privacy while still being connected. I think of it like the lock on my front door, it is there to stop the curious, not the determined.

Tags: life privacy