WD06 - Hi ! My name is …
The ‘API & Mash ups’ presentation by Kevin Yank and Cameron Adams (presented by ‘Bluepoint’) demonstrated just how easily data offered by a range of popular online services (MySpace, Upcoming.com, Google Maps) can be combined - mashed up so to speak - into an aggregate data pool feeding some of the most interesting and powerful tools, for anyone who has enough time on their hands to make us of it.
I will use the word ‘interesting’ in a slightly negative way because I believe that the potential issues that some of these mash ups may present outweighs the overall ‘coolness factor’ by a long shot.
Think about the following:
Amazon’s purchase data combined with the Google Maps API, to find out who bought George Orwell - 1984 and where in the US do they live?
Not too bad right ?
Now think of Upcoming.com’s event data (which can provide the attendees name for certain events) combined with the Google Maps API. This scenario would give any a nice overview or where exactly John Doe will be from next Wednesday.
Starting to get worried?
Finally I’d like you to think about the scenario above and throw some more personal information into the mix, by say tapping into the MySpace or Flickr API’s, potentially giving you a fairly comprehensive picture of a person you would like to track.
Stopped smiling yet?
I know most, if not all of you will be saying: “Big deal, if you don’t want your personal data to be available on the net don’t use services like MySpace, Flickr or make sure your details are not publicly available” or you might be saying: “It’s not Google Maps’, Upcoming or MySpace’s fault, they just provide ’some’ data” and you’re correct, both times.
What I am worried about is how careless a lot of people seem to have gotten when giving out their personal information on the net.
Would you go up to a random person in the street and tell them where you live ?
Who your friends are?
Where exactly you’ll be next week?
The answer to all of these questions is most likely “No!”
It seems to me however that these ‘rules’ or ’scenarios’ are completely disregarded as soon as we’re ‘on’.
This might seem like yet another paranoid scare campaign by one of those conspiracy theory obsessed geeks, but I assure you it is not.
What I am trying to get at - and forgive me because I am exceptionally bad at putting stuff into words - is that I want people to think before they leave their personal details with site x,y,z.
The net, due to it’s vast size and rapidly evolving nature seems to get us to disregard all we have learned from our parents since birth.
“Don’t talk to strangers”
“Do not go home with someone that you have just met”
“Do not give out your details if you’re not sure who you’re dealing with”
On the world wide web all of this however all of this does not seem to apply - the net is not ‘real’.
I really believe there needs to be more education in regards to this problem, and I am not just talking about the serious problems like the increasingly popular email banking and credit card scams.
Do you really NOT mind that the whole globe can find out where exactly you live, what you look like and where exactly you will be for the next few days to come?
The more data you leave behind and the more sophisticated data mining and API Mash ups get the easier it will be to track you for anyone.
The point of this rant is NOT to scare you, it is simply to make you THINK before you leave your details somewhere next time.
October 2nd, 2006 at 22:09:55
I find it disturbing. I’m now wondering if I should be using avartars instead of my name. I also wonder how much online exposure (if any) is fair for children in terms of documenting their comments, photos activities online. Did you see this post by Molly Holzschlag in August? http://www.molly.com/2006/08/26/oh-just-what-i-need-more-stalkers/
October 3rd, 2006 at 18:41:52
I didn’t actually see Molly’s post, but thanks for pointing it out, it’s definately adding more weight to this whole “idea”.
The fact that you mention avatars reminds me that I completely forgot to put that part back into the article as I had scribbled down a few things on the plane about that as well.
When you look back to the early days on the net avatars or nicks where pretty much the norm, the whole appeal was that you were anonymous when dealing with other people. Anonymity (at least in regards to personal information) was a pretty big part of the whole social networking happenings back then. Sure you could share your name/address etc, but you would usually only do so if you felt really comfortable dealing with someone, otherwise you’d just stay ’safe’ behind your mask.
The second article I will blog a bit later this week might shed a bit more light on why I think dealing with the net in general has taken quite a drastic turn in the last few years.
Thanks for the comment, I appreciate the input.