Shocking truth about free networking sites!

Paul Chaney’s crusade has had me thinking about Twitter and other “free” social media platforms!

The truth is that they are anything BUT free.

When you set up a profile on a site such as Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook and so on, you are actually giving away information, and information is valuable.

I had a chat to a miner today, an information miner.

The amount of money that can be made by mining people’s information is amazing, and it is sold to marketing companies, decision makers and so on.

They can in turn gauge public opinions, discern trends, and market, or make their decisions accordingly.

Don’t believe me? Look here for a start!

Follow the links and insert your own name to see what comes up. Look further, and see who else gets their hands on it…

I had a debate via email and my blog about privacy with the management of Bigsight.com earlier this year.

I still have a lot of questions, and there was one in particular that wasn’t answered!

That question will be revisited soon.

As pointed out then though, Bigsight isn’t doing anything against the law, as the law stands at present.

Does a boycott make sense if Twitter isn’t working properly?

Because in a sense, it’s not free after all, is it?

If you are parting with your information, you are in fact turning over something that is very valuable.

Now, I’m not saying that Twitter, Facebook or any other site mentioned here is doing anything illegal, immoral or untoward!

But the possibility is that somewhere, someday, someone might.

So what do I want in return for my information?

Good, old fashioned reliable Service for a start!

Have a great weekend!

Internet users continue to play dumb with their private details, and run the risk of identity theft, and worse, as a result!

As I reported a few days ago, the privacy of people using sites such as Linkedin, Friendster, Myspace and Facebook is being put at risk by sites such as Wink.com

Finding that I had three profiles on the site, and that I couldn’t delete them, caused me to have a bit of a panic attack.

Because I live in Australia though, I don’t have to have insult added to injury.

US citizens who have profiles on Wink can be investigated even further – simply by clicking the “Background Check” link on the site.

A link to Intelius.com from Wink then allows anyone seeking more information to find previous addresses, judgments and so on.

One wonders at the extent of protection that privacy laws give, and how this site can access court records and other documents.

With crimes such as identity theft on the rise, this has to be a real worry, and while I don’t have anything to hide, I don’t want my details splashed all over the place either.

This issue also raises the question about who owns my data, particularly the data that I entrust to a social networking site.

While I previously had concerns about Bigsight, at least that company allows anyone wishing to do so, to delete their profile.

Don’t get caught playing Dumb or Dumber.

Be careful of what details you divulge on social networking sites.

If a form which you are filling online seems to be asking unnecessary personal questions, stop and ask yourself why?

Back track and see who owns the company. If you can, find out why they want your personal information.

If there seems to be no good reason, don’t give it to them! Simple!

And as for your profile on social networking sites, give the bare minimum of details possible.

Well, haven’t I opened a can of worms with my post on Facebook and Bigsight!

All sorts of information has been sent to me by different people, and it has been pointed out to me that there are in fact three profiles of me on Wink.com.

In the meantime, the option to delete a profile from Bigsight has been made a one click process.

The Wink profiles work in a similar manner to Bigsight, gathering information from social networking sites such as Linkedin, Myspace and Facebook, and making it available on their website.

Fine, no problem, because I have profiles all over the place. Having one in one place is quite handy, right?

Wrong! Wrong! Wrong!

At least as far as Wink is concerned!

Click on the more information link about me, and you will get a list of people with the name ‘Allan Cockerill’ who reside in the US.

Not a problem for me at the moment, because I am residing in the wonderful land of Oz, but access to information on people in other parts of the world wouldn’t be too hard to access!

Pick the ‘Allan Cockerill’ that you want want information on though, and you have the opportunity to purchase a report on him, including credit history, income and so on.

I checked the profile of a friend in the US (who I won’t name for obvious reasons), and found a link there for a ‘background check’, which I could purchase.

This is all done through a site called Intelius.com

Now, it’s no use shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, but I have been doing a bit of editing on my profiles, erasing information that people just don’t need to know about.

As I wrote the other day, We are prisoners of our own device!

Once you submit information to a website, it is open for everyone to see.

I’m not saying that everyone should go and shut down their account, but what I am saying is this: Your Privacy Is Your Concern!

Do not put anything in your profile that you don’t want others to see… stay tuned for updates!

Australian Telecommunications Minister Stephen Conroy says that new measures are being put in place to provide greater protection to children from online pornography and violent websites.

Senator Conroy says it will be mandatory for all internet service providers to provide clean feeds, or ISP filtering, to houses and schools that are free of pornography and inappropriate material.
Source: ABC News coverage of the announcement.

The Christmas – New Year period is usually a ‘slow news’ time, and apart from natural disasters and Christmas stories, nothing much other than sport, family and celebrating appear to distract Australians from their usual routines.

Often new policy details seem to be released at this time in the hope that people are too distracted to take any notice.

I first heard about this announcement in a message from Teeg in the US via Skype early this morning. Since then it has been the subject of a number of messages via Twitter and email.

Censorship and Child Pornography:

Any worthwhile attempt to curb exploitation of children, especially in the area of child pornography usually has my support.

However, the potential for misuse of this latest idea makes it a dangerous move.

From the increasing number of court convictions of people who download pornography one would assume that the tracking of these individuals is already quite successful.

This raises the question of how much further the government needs to go in this area.

Then there are the questions of Internet speed and the cost to users, points covered by Duncan Riley. in his detailed post about the issue.

Another great post by Des Walsh adds another perspective to the issue.

As Duncan says, the future may have been told in this pre-election video about Kevin Rudd.