Privacy Thread

[Triple Zero]

BTW if you plan on doing the above, you need to scan your ID. You are allowed to obscure the following:

- blur or obscure the photograph
- write "Request to access data from Facebook <date>" over where the photograph was the whole scan, so no one else can use the scan for something else (in case it gets "misplaced")
- obscure your social security number. this is a number for communication between you and the state, in addition to a bunch of organisations the state decided are allowed to use it. Facebook is not one of them. Nor are they your employer (who is also required to have it).

from https://pim.bof.nl/gebruikers/geef-niet-meer-dan-nodig/

edit: correction, misread the article. you should mark the entire scan, like diagonally, so nobody can cut it away and use it for another purpose

[Cain]

Heyyyyy European folks, check this out:

http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Get_your_Data_/get_your_data_.html

Apparently EU law says you're entitled to request ALL data FB has been tracking about you

Aw yeah.  I'm totally going to do this.

[Telarus]

http://nrek.co/technology/what-facebook-opengraph-means-for-you/


Yeah, I plan to delete my account. Clear all my cookies in all browsers, and then only use FB in an incognito Chrome window... Do I need to clear my chrome cookies manually after each session as well?

Huh, how would you "use" FB in an incognito window, when you deleted your acount?

Possibly rebooting to a 'portfolio' account (different email address). Simply for online ID management / personal branding / etc (my friend Nick Pell is also thinking about doing this). Still thinking it over tho.

[Triple Zero]

Heyyyyy European folks, check this out:

http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Get_your_Data_/get_your_data_.html

Apparently EU law says you're entitled to request ALL data FB has been tracking about you

Aw yeah.  I'm totally going to do this.

Be sure to check the rest of the site, VERY interesting info, an (incomplete but extensive) rundown of all the types of data FB collects about you:

http://europe-v-facebook.org/EN/Data_Pool/data_pool.html

Sure we knew this already, but it's quite an eye opener to see it listed out as a fact right there.

And indeed, whatever you delete, never gets deleted for real, just marked "deleted" and invisible.

[Jenne]

I do have an auto-erase-cookies setting for whenever the computer's shut off.   So my cache is cleared pretty regularly.  I noticed with these inprivacy windows, my passwords are not saved like they are in the "normal" tabs.  Very interesting.

[Triple Zero]

A very good and thorough essay on Privacy:

http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127461/

Addressing amongst other things the "if you got nothing to hide" retort, but also the right to know what is being stored about you.

The latter is kind of interesting in my case, because in Dutch society surveillance is rampant (our country of 17M has more phone-taps in absolute numbers than the USA). Basically it's only bearable because our government hasn't turned completely evil ... yet (and if I were Muslim, I might think differently perhaps), but there are lots of laws and regulations that allow one to request what sort of data is stored about you.
This sort of balances the scales a little bit. Especially because you can also request your data to be removed in certain (non-government) circumstances, and there's several types of centralized opt-out lists (for telemarketing etc) that actually work, have real consequences for companies not following them, and are quite effortless to sign up to (less than a minute online).
Hence my bemused surprise that Virgin wouldn't simply stop mailing me right away at my email request. A European corp could have potentially gotten in trouble for not immediately complying.

Of course it just balances the scales a tiny bit. And it hinges on the gov not being actively evil about it (seems their attention is elsewhere right now).

I especially worry, and that's one thing the article doesn't touch upon, the amount of data recorded about me not by the government, but by corporations. Now that's also very regulated in the Netherlands, but there's not quite enough checks to see if they follow the rules.
And then there's US or international corporations, collecting data about me, and the US gov can just subpoena them, and really they should have no business with my data at all. Like how they requested the Twitter data from that Icelandic politician, and the Dutch Wikileaks guy. And we only heard about that because Twitter decided to make a fuss about it. So in reality I must assume they're getting info from Twitter, Google and Facebook all the fucking time.

[axod]

Unfortunately, sometimes I avoid tracking by using tor, which can be a pain..

[Xooxe]

http://venturebeat.com/2010/07/02/facial-recognition-camouflage/

The future will try its best to make us look as outlandish as possible. I'm calling it.

http://www.pearltrees.com/#/N-u=1_72898&N-p=11793649&N-s=1_819142&N-f=1_819142&N-fa=818179

Whole bunch of privacy stuff I found on Pearltrees. It's basically a site about socially mind mapping links if you've never been there.

[Rumckle]

http://venturebeat.com/2010/07/02/facial-recognition-camouflage/

The future will try its best to make us look as outlandish as possible. I'm calling it.

Or just make everybody join the KISS Army

[Triple Zero]

Unfortunately, sometimes I avoid tracking by using tor, which can be a pain..

Dude, what are you talking about? Tor hides nothing but your IP address ... badly.

[Cramulus]

A very good and thorough essay on Privacy:

http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127461/

Addressing amongst other things the "if you got nothing to hide" retort, but also the right to know what is being stored about you.

that was a great article

[Prelate Diogenes Shandor]

Yet another reason to hate Facebook...

[Triple Zero]

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_hands_wikileaks_volunteers_gmail_data_to_us.php

"Gmail users got a hefty dose of reality today when it was revealed that Google handed over one user's private data to the U.S. government, who requested it without a search warrant."

[M. Nigel Salt]

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_hands_wikileaks_volunteers_gmail_data_to_us.php

"Gmail users got a hefty dose of reality today when it was revealed that Google handed over one user's private data to the U.S. government, who requested it without a search warrant."

So much for "don't be evil".

[Triple Zero]

Well they didn't have much choice in it. Both Google and the small ISP Sonic fought for the right to inform mr Appelbaum, and won (which is why we're hearing about this now). The ISP Sonic also fought against having to hand over the data at all, and it is not known whether Google fought this too, but they probably would have lost.

If they didn't fight it, it's probably got something to do with the antitrust thing they have against themselves, not wanting to get in a bad light vs the government.

Either way, whether Google is evil or not (they are), is not the point here, it's that the US Gov can request this data without a search warrant.

In fact, I've read something somewhere about Google and some other big names trying to work out a change in this "Electronic Communications and Privacy Act" because it was made in the 80s or early 90s and back then they didn't envision people would be storing all sorts of private data in the "cloud", so they didn't give it the same protection as, say, snailmail communications. I'll post links when I hear more about this.