No you couldn't, sir. This is Information Retrieval.
Re-posted comment that I made to a friend who posted this link [Symantec security blog: privacy on social networking sites]:
[Edit: I do realise I’m not talking about quite the same things as Symantec here.]
I’m often bothered by the openness that people will display even in filtered posts. Intimate revelations are one thing, and I think even moderately-abstract descriptions of, say, sexual kinks or untoward behaviour, but I’ve seen people describing specific illegal acts. Just a few days ago I saw this guy talking about his tax fraud! He’d better hope that doesn’t come back to haunt him. :)
Thus far, the Internet has afforded us a fair amount of privacy simply by virtue of its size and disorganisation. That is going to change. Assume that search capabilities will eclipse anything you’ve imagined. Things that are currently private will become public. Stuff you’ve carefully hidden is going to be exposed to broad daylight. The anonymous will become identifiable. That pornographic story you wrote under a pseudonym? Some day Google (or whoever steals the march on them) is going to match your syntax patterns with your blog, and that story’s going to have your real name all over it and side-links from your online resumé. That picture of you in bed with Max? At the moment face-recognition technology sucks too badly to be a threat, but don’t bet it’ll stay that way. Fancy having you and Max turn up in an “other photos of this face” search?
That’s not to say you can’t post intimate stuff to LiveJournal, or FaceBook or MySpace or whatever you use. But the golden rule has to be, “If I post this, do I have a damage-containment plan for when someone prints copies of it and gives them to my family, my neighbours, my colleagues and the police?” Because I believe that sometime in the next two to twenty years, given the massively evolving capabilities of search engines, governmental surveillance and illegal systems hacking (not to mention the ethical vagaries of the LiveJournal management), that’s effectively what’s going to happen. The doors of society are opening. Better not to be one of the many who’ll be caught with their trousers down.
[Edit: I do realise I’m not talking about quite the same things as Symantec here.]
I’m often bothered by the openness that people will display even in filtered posts. Intimate revelations are one thing, and I think even moderately-abstract descriptions of, say, sexual kinks or untoward behaviour, but I’ve seen people describing specific illegal acts. Just a few days ago I saw this guy talking about his tax fraud! He’d better hope that doesn’t come back to haunt him. :)
Thus far, the Internet has afforded us a fair amount of privacy simply by virtue of its size and disorganisation. That is going to change. Assume that search capabilities will eclipse anything you’ve imagined. Things that are currently private will become public. Stuff you’ve carefully hidden is going to be exposed to broad daylight. The anonymous will become identifiable. That pornographic story you wrote under a pseudonym? Some day Google (or whoever steals the march on them) is going to match your syntax patterns with your blog, and that story’s going to have your real name all over it and side-links from your online resumé. That picture of you in bed with Max? At the moment face-recognition technology sucks too badly to be a threat, but don’t bet it’ll stay that way. Fancy having you and Max turn up in an “other photos of this face” search?
That’s not to say you can’t post intimate stuff to LiveJournal, or FaceBook or MySpace or whatever you use. But the golden rule has to be, “If I post this, do I have a damage-containment plan for when someone prints copies of it and gives them to my family, my neighbours, my colleagues and the police?” Because I believe that sometime in the next two to twenty years, given the massively evolving capabilities of search engines, governmental surveillance and illegal systems hacking (not to mention the ethical vagaries of the LiveJournal management), that’s effectively what’s going to happen. The doors of society are opening. Better not to be one of the many who’ll be caught with their trousers down.