I just read a very interesting article from Top Tech News - "New Web Sites Make It Easier to Spy on Friends" by Vauhini Vara. I recommend it to everyone who spends time on the internet (that means everyone reading this post!), since it really opened my eyes to how much people can find out about you for free online. It definitely proves that you are not anonymous online like many thought in the late 90s when I worked at an ISP.
The article goes into detail about some websites that allow people to search the dark recesses of the internet - the areas that don't necessarily come up in a simple Google or Yahoo search. Of course, the information this article talks about people being able to search is all in the public domain, but it still raises warning flags to me about my own personal privacy. I have come to the conclusion that there really is no such thing as privacy in the 21st Century - especially when it comes to your interactions on the internet.
One specific search engine is mentioned in the article that allows you to enter anyone's street address and find out if that person has donated to any political campaigns. While this may be information in the public domain, it makes me a bit mroe leery of donating to any campaigns. Can you imagine a possible employer looking at this search engine (that allows you to look at contributions from 2004 & 2008 presidential campaigns) and deciding they don't like my political views so they pass over me for the position? Ack! No good in my book.
There is such a thing as too much transparency. And I've now found it.
Who am I?
- Rachel Gray
- Rochester, MN, United States
- I am an information services librarian and also a project librarian at SELCO. This basically means I work with training and the help desk @ SELCO for part of the time, and work on a "Smart Investing @ Your Library" grant the other part. This blog will be about me, librarianship & library technology.
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Oh, and don't talk to strangers:
"Some people have come across dirt on their loved ones without even looking for it. Doug Orlyk, a 42-year-old librarian in Bensenville, Ill., recently turned to Zaba-Search to find his new boyfriend's address so he could send him a card. Instead, he found out that the boyfriend had been lying about his age -- he was 43, not 35 as he had claimed on the dating site where Orlyk had met him. "I thought, 'You're a liar! You're older than I am!" Orlyk recalled. His new relationship ended soon thereafter...."
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