I was recently demonstrating to someone how easy it is to find information on the web, and then infer certain things about that data–the kind of data mining that anyone can do, given even a basic understanding of search engines. My example, at once effectively and poorly chosen, was the person’s name: effectively because Google Canada returned a single hit, to a page containing a list of people, from which I was able to guess the person’s approximate age, level of education, hometown, and various other bits of information; and poorly because by doing so I think I’ve made this person afraid, of others and of me. Coming up with personal details like that in seconds just to prove a point to someone unfamiliar with the web–let alone the Internet–is more disturbing than I’d considered.
I’m not a privacy zealot by any means. I still fill out forms with accurate demographic information (but bogus e-mail addresses), I use my credit card with abandon, and I’ve only skimmed the EFF‘s website; denying cookies is about as far as I go to conceal my web travels. Seeing the reaction to what I thought of as a trivial little exercise, though, makes me wonder if I’ve been a little too blasé about the whole matter. I’m fine with the information I’ve deliberately released about myself; this weblog may cross the line as to providing material from which certain deductions can be made, but I think I’m willing to stretch that far. It’s the information that I don’t know about–like the Google hit in my demo–that concerns me.
Not that I have anything untoward to hide… I revel in being the most boring person I know!