search engines, social networking, and privacy
A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to try a different default search engine, Startpage (instead of Google), because (it claims) it doesn't log search activity by IP address.
Now this from Google CEO Eric Schmidt's keynote address to the Mobile World Congress:
"We can literally know everything if we want to."This notion of publishing and microblogging and so forth, information that you think is generally interesting is an explosion that will drive networks futher into everything we do in every way. Think of it as an opportunity to instrument the world. These networks are now so pervasive that we can literally know everything if we want to. What people are doing, what people care about, information that's monitored, we can literally know it if we want to, and if people want us to know it.
Some of the comments following were interesting.
Olde Sarge: Very Worrisome in Relation to NSA PartnershipCouple this cavalier attitude regarding personal information with the emerging relationship with the NSA and the Patriot Act trampling of individual protections and things become real scary real fast. .... Never put personally identifiable information on the internet, don't use social networking applications, use proxy services to mask IP address from web applications, do not blog under real identity, don't tweet, don't leave computers powered on, don't leave web cams plugged in, and do not leave cell phones turned on unless you don't care about being tracked.
Cal: People can't fathom how much they really knowI was watching one of those true-life criminal cases .... a couple were supposedly shot, robbed and one died. Even though the husband was suspected ... he had also suffered 2 bullet wounds. .... They decided to subpoena Google for records on the husbands [sic] internet activity over the last 4 years. ... he had done quite a bit of research on non-lethal bullet wounds prior to the crime. .... the bullet wounds inflicted were the best ways one could possibly get shot ... and have no lasting damage. The informational evidence from Google is what sealed the conviction.
I have no problem with catching murderers, but the definition of what is or isn't a crime can change very quickly. (E.g. yesterday's contributions to charities are tomorrow's funding of terrorism.) More and more it just seems like a good idea not to put your info out where it can be logged, data-mined, archived, and subpoenaed (or searched without due process, when an administration justifies that to itself). GMail (well, all ISPs' email servers, but we know Google scans theirs) must be another treasure trove. Encrypting email sounds like a good idea. Or does that just make you look more interesting to the agencies that want to search through everything?
And I mentioned a webcam incident just a couple of days ago. If these things can happen, they will happen. Right or wrong, it's human nature.