Online Privacy
State of Affairs:
You enter a search into Google, Yahoo, whatever.
The query is logged & linked to your IP- which can be linked to your account and thus you personally.
Over years and hundreds of searches an incredibly "commercially valuable" image of your preferences, interests and activities is built up in raw data form.
A simple query can be used to collate all the info on "You" that the search engine has stored.
There have been legal cases where the American government has asked Google to release tis information to it & Google has refused- in the washout it came to light that Microsoft, Yahoo & others complied. However that by no means indicates that your "profile" is safe with Google- the legal landscape may change or the definition of evil in "do no evil" could slip a little more.
Maybe you care. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't mind not getting that job because of a LJ post you made when you were 16. Maybe you don't mind being black-flagged at every airports as a result of (usually poorly-implemented) search criteria that shows you looked up "Muslim" several times. (Albeit for a high school religious project)
Raw search data is devoid of context but the way the data is used does not recognise that. Legally there is not really any defence or protection from being mis-categorised. Or even to allow you to be de-categorised if you don't WANT to be categorised.
Etc.
The current best defence? Obfuscation. False trails. Drown the real data that identifies "you" in a mish-mash of irrelevant data.
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/
You enter a search into Google, Yahoo, whatever.
The query is logged & linked to your IP- which can be linked to your account and thus you personally.
Over years and hundreds of searches an incredibly "commercially valuable" image of your preferences, interests and activities is built up in raw data form.
A simple query can be used to collate all the info on "You" that the search engine has stored.
There have been legal cases where the American government has asked Google to release tis information to it & Google has refused- in the washout it came to light that Microsoft, Yahoo & others complied. However that by no means indicates that your "profile" is safe with Google- the legal landscape may change or the definition of evil in "do no evil" could slip a little more.
Maybe you care. Maybe you don't. Maybe you don't mind not getting that job because of a LJ post you made when you were 16. Maybe you don't mind being black-flagged at every airports as a result of (usually poorly-implemented) search criteria that shows you looked up "Muslim" several times. (Albeit for a high school religious project)
Raw search data is devoid of context but the way the data is used does not recognise that. Legally there is not really any defence or protection from being mis-categorised. Or even to allow you to be de-categorised if you don't WANT to be categorised.
Etc.
The current best defence? Obfuscation. False trails. Drown the real data that identifies "you" in a mish-mash of irrelevant data.
http://mrl.nyu.edu/~dhowe/trackmenot/