20 Responses to “The Global Geek Podcast #75 :: Pink Privacy”

1. Herne Says:
   January 29th, 2008 at 11:31 pm

   Dave, just listening to the podcast and I had to pause it for a second here while you relate your story about online privacy.

   I’ve been saying all along, ever since I started out on the Internet that is it VERY important to keep personal details about yourself OFF of the Internet. I still can’t fathom why people would want to publicly announce things like birthdays, government ID numbers, personal stats, etc on the Internet. People have even scanned their driver’s licenses and posted them on the Internet, for gawd sakes! It is way too easy, as you have discovered, for someone else to search around and put all this information together about you. I pity the kids today who are posting all this information about themselves on sites like MySpace and Facebook, it is all going to come back and slap them in the face and be used against them in the future. Employers are now commonly doing Internet searches on perspective employees and all this information, photos of you drunk, etc, is going to put you in a bad light.

   This is why I generally choose to remain anonymous on the Net. I do not post photos of myself, nor do I allow others to post photos of me (at least not using my real name). While I’m sure that someone who was determined enough could find out things about me on the Net–it is impossible to remain completely anonymous unless you view the Net as a read-only resource–the aren’t going to find personal details about me, or compromising photos (*cough*Knightwise*cough*).

   Now… back to the podcast.

2. Herne Says:
   January 29th, 2008 at 11:52 pm

   I just got to the part in the podcast that mentioned me and just about burst out laughing here at work! rofl!

3. Herne Says:
   January 30th, 2008 at 12:12 am

   Something else I had to mention about privacy now that I’ve listened to the whole podcast, and since it happened to me last night…

   I was on a website that I often visit sitting in a chat room with a couple “virtual friends” and one of them gave me a link to one of those gaming sites that have those cute little time-wasting flash games. At the same time, I must have had Facebook open in another browser window. So this morning when I log into Facebook to check out an email a friend sent me, I notice that in my minifeed that is says “[Herne] has used [game site]. Follow this link…” And I’m thinking, “Those bastards have read my Facebook cookie!” I use Firefox and I have it clear all data on exit, so I know I must have had FB open in another window, but the fact that this website rooted around in my cookie files just pissed me off. I have since increased my level of security on Facebook (again) and blocked that website. This sort of invasive marketing is becoming more common and it is turning me right off these “social” websites.

4. knightwise Says:
   January 30th, 2008 at 1:30 am

   why in gods name do you think I wear a pink mask ! My privacy is secure !

5. knightwise Says:
   January 30th, 2008 at 6:15 am

   But on a more serious note : This is probably one of the best GGP episodes of the last few months. I absolutely loved it. The whole privacy topic was very intriguing.

   I regularly get the question : Why “knightwise” why not “your real name” why do your call your wife Nyana and not her real name. Well, its to keep that last line of defense between the “reality soap” that is Knightwise.com and my real life.

   I’ve made the mistake about blogging about my day at work a few years ago. Suddenly I got called to my boss his office, my co-worker (who was out for my job) had found my blog and printed it out. He had marked EVERY SINGLE COMMENT, SIGH and mention that was related to my workplace. Not that I had mentioned exactly “where” i worked. All he needed was what I thought about it. I turned as white as a sheet when I saw that. Luckily I had the balls to challenge them : “Prove it was written by me” I told them. The term “Knightwise” was my last line of “plausible denail”. Come to think of it : we ARE the celebs of the new medium and should be careful about what we do online. But the flipside ? I got hired for a job a few years ago. I had sent in my resume but a dodgy fax had smeared everything into unreadability (except for my website address). My employer had just surfed to my site and started reading.. and hired me on that ground. So your online existence can be your extended resume. And on my current job it was “announced” that they would get a new colleague : ‘his name is …. and here is his website’ .. that is all that was said and that is how i was introduced.

   Closing statement : Be careful what you put online. But also be true to yourself and to who you are .. That way things won’t come back to haunt you.

   (and when wearing pink tights : make sure to ware a mask .. plausible denail)

6. George Says:
   January 30th, 2008 at 11:38 am

   Hi Guys

   Another interesting podcast.

   I totally agree with the privacy thing. I post on a few forums using alias’s for that reason. That and I use an old yahoo account for posting. The yahoo account was from before you needed to put an isp account in so its somewhat clean.

   I posted some “harmless” stuff when at uni, which is still around. So let that serve as a warning to those that want to start a flame war when young and bulletproof. In my profession it would look really bad for me to be doing high profile work and have something from my past dragged up, not that I have been arrested as one of my friends recently was. Having said that I don’t care that I have a high geek factor or if people know.

   The thing that really struck me is the use of my DOB. I have never thought of that before. Thanks for the tip.

7. Doug Says:
   January 30th, 2008 at 1:36 pm

   After listening to the podcast it really made me think.
   After meeting some random online, I soon found out she was a friend of a friend. I have known her for neally a year now and haven’t met her in person(was planned to do last week but didnt happen). Now I know her complete full name(incl middle),mob ph#,(her home numbers private, but she was going tell me it, but I said no for a reason),her full D.O.B, Suburb of residence. I could tell you alot. Now im not the sort of person that would use that wrongly, but imagine if I was. She considers her self “private” but you can easily leak info out of people without them realising it. Now shes the same age as me(Still at school) so that also bring in the “pedophile” part.
   Just by googling her name and area, I get a few results form the year 2005 and other years. If I really wanted to go at her, I could definently cause some damage.
   And also this information could make me think of her differently, possibly unfairly.
   This show really made me think!

8. George Says:
   January 30th, 2008 at 3:25 pm

   Looks like your a stalker Doug

9. James Williams Says:
   January 30th, 2008 at 9:55 pm

   Coincidentally, the Sunrise morning TV program here in Australia covered the story of the missing camera. Here’s a link to the video….

   http://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/sunrise/video/index.html?autoplay_id=6156694#embedded-video-top

10. Global Geek Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 10:40 pm

    Thanks for the feedback so far guys. Hard show for me. Plus I really was honest and wanted you guys to know what I had and am going through.

    BUT I will say that I would not change anything. I do have an online presence, I do have a public face and yes there are pictures of me on the net. I don’t walk down the street with a bag on my head. This is my choice and I am comfortable with these choices. I know that some people are not. Part of this is a result of my involvement with the podcast. I have to be somewhat public. I don’t fear for my safety or that of my family.

    I do think you can be totally paranoid about it as well. The take home message for the show is - think before you do it and live with the consequences of it - whatever it is. But also to remember that sometimes you may not see the implications. Just be prepared to live with it either way. We can’t be closet people. If we want to live we have to interact. Treat the net like real life. Don’t share everything with everyone and whatever you do share - do it in the context of some kind of relationship - vary the degree of disclosure based on that relationship.

    As I said I would not change anything. The Internet has been good to me, my family, my friends and my life. I don’t want to exchange that for anything.

11. George Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    Would that be a plastic or paper bag?

    But seriously, kudos to you for your honesty.

12. Global Geek Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 10:55 pm

    @George I would prefer paper if I was going to do it.

    Thank you

13. Global Geek Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

    @Knightwise thank mate and we know it was you…

14. Mac Lab Rat Says:
    January 31st, 2008 at 7:11 am

    Absolutely GREAT show this week guys.

    The privacy talk really hit home for me (and will be the focus of an upcoming blog post).

    Something I’ll be undertaking over the next few nights is similar to Cait’s project for the week. I’m going to do a full audit of my own online presence and try to weed out some of the things that I may not want disclosed. I’m usually a pretty careful person, but I did have a couple of things (DOB) in my Facebook profile that I’ve pulled from display (apparently you can’t remove it completely).

    @Dave: I appreciate you taking the time to relate a very personal story to us. It’s a very clear reminder of the breadth and depth of the Internet, and a lesson to all of us that we should be careful with what we publish.

15. Terry O Says:
    January 31st, 2008 at 8:11 pm

    Interesting topic, thanks for sharing that story with us, Dave. I’m thinking it took a lot of guts to talk about that on a podcast.

    On a similar vein, I remember reading an LJ post a while back about what you’d call a D Grade celebrity. Any child from the 80s probably remembers Peter Combe. (Toffee Apple, Newspaper Mama etc… Come on, The Wiggles were still The Cockroaches at that point!!), anyway this friend at a whim went to his website and I don’t know if it’s still there but he said that Peter had HIS PERSONAL PHONE NUMBER on the site so if any kids (okay, he still thinks he’s popular with the kids, thats funny) wanted to call him to chat, they could. He then said it took him less than ten minutes to find out where he lives online. Okay, kids are probably the least harmless in the bigger picture, but all it takes is some crazy person in his or her late 20s to suss out the website… It’s frightening.. It’s probably easy enough to find me online really, but that’s why I don’t have my complete name here, there’s only two people in the world with my full name. Type my name in and you get dozens of entries on different pages… Nothing embarrassing but yeah the kids who are young these days who like to show off, it just boggles the mind…

16. Ian Warren Says:
    February 1st, 2008 at 12:29 am

    Hey guys,

    Great show as ever, and the roundtable discussion was definately a welcome addition to the show.

    Your conversation reminds me of a couple of stories sort of touching on online privacy.

    Have you guys ever heard about ‘dog poop girl’? Basically a woman in her 20’s let her dog poop on a subway train floor in South Korea then refused to pick it up when people complained. Before she got off a passenger snapped a photo of her and uploaded it to a popular Korean website. Pretty quickly the internet vigilantes discovered her name, address and phone number and began flaming her en masse. That’s kind of an example of how your privacy can be breached without even actively going online!

    Anyway this other story is pretty stupid… in the UK we have a presenter called Jeremy Clarkson, who gimmick is that he’s basically an out spoken middle aged, middle class bloke who tries to always go against what everyone else is saying. Anyway we had a bit of a scandal in the UK because a government office lost some CD’s containing hundreds of thousands of people’s bank account details.

    The tabloids were making a massive deal so Jeremy Clarkson wrote in his newspaper column how it was all a fuss over nothing and to prove a point posted his own bank account details in the newspaper. Unfortunately for him someone set up a direct debit to a charity with his details and donated £500 out of his account!

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm

    Some people need to take the issue a bit more seriously I think

17. Terry Says:
    February 4th, 2008 at 12:22 am

    Hey Dave - here’s an article on privacy by Tim Brunero (Big Brother, The Chaser) you may want to read as well…

18. Chris Abraham Says:
    February 16th, 2008 at 10:30 pm

    All writers know that the moment they release their words into the wilderness, their words will always attack them at some point. I am sorry about your daughter’s intro to your body of work, but don’t worry. You are brilliant, mate, and she will see that. How cool are you?

    Also, Joseph Jaffe sent me an email to let me know about your fine review of Firebrand! I was responsible for the online PR for Firebrand over Super Bowl and I was blissed to hear your amazing review. I am much obliged! Cheers very much.

    Back to privacy, I was recently included in an article in a very famous magazine here in the States, The Atlantic, in a story called “Marry Him!,” all about a failed relationship I had. The interview was conducted almost three years ago, however it was spot on and showed me embarrassingly revealed — and I look like both a pratt and a loser — and maybe I am.

    But I approved the interview and the content, so I have to live with it. And I know that in 20 years (maybe sooner) I will cherish it.

    Anyway, I am happy I found your podcast! Cheers for the Firebrand mention, even if I was not directly responsible.

19. Global Geek Says:
    February 17th, 2008 at 2:21 pm

    Nice words Chris thank you and thanks for listening and becoming part of our community here. You comments and insights are welcome and much appreciated.

    Firebrand rocks - if you must watch ads at least watch them in style eh?

20. TPN :: The Global Geek Podcast » Blog Archive » List of Web 2.0 Music Sites Says:
    May 3rd, 2008 at 9:45 pm

    [...] The list not only reflects the diversity of sites available out there but also the changing face of online music and culture. Given that I think that after a bit of legal wrangling we won’t see all of these around forever. SeepPod as we have said in a previous podcast; already has the lawyers barking up their tree (no word yet on how that is turning out). [...]

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