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Not standing behind the bushes. Spying online, of course. Dan Tynan explains, “online stalking made easy.” Then JR Rafael elaborates on how people search engines “know your dark secrets.” As Spokeo CEO Harrison Tang knows first-hand, “Even though most people think the size of the Web is basically the Google crawl index, there’s actually a lot of information that Google doesn’t crawl.” (Did you know, for example,
that Spokeo can import your whole e-mail address book?) Other services also help people discover your secrets too including Pipl and CVGadget. One can also snoop via StumbleUpon, of course, and even Amazon Wish Lists, Pandora playlists.
Or buy “marketing” information from Rapleaf. Then there’s google and others’ behavioral marketing.
And if reliable Maytag is now data mining under the guise of a recall what other ostensibly consumer-serving actions are being launched by companies?
Want to “slam the door” on what others can collect? (I do.) JC Rafael helps you here too.
Even as governments debate privacy safeguards we know that there’ll always be a new technology to circumvent efforts. That’s why journalists like Dan and JC are invaluable, as is the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
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The good news is that some efforts to make information more accessible and transparent are for the greater good.
