{"id":169,"date":"2003-01-21T23:54:53-05:00","date_gmt":"2003-01-22T07:54:53+00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterjanes.ca\/wordpress\/?p=169"},"modified":"2003-01-21T23:54:53-05:00","modified_gmt":"2003-01-22T07:54:53+00:00","slug":"private-dont-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterjanes.ca\/blog\/2003\/01\/21\/private-dont-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Private! Don’t read!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/cite> 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n

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<\/acronym><\/cite>‘s website<\/a>; 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<\/em> 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<\/em> know about–like the Google hit in my demo–that concerns me.<\/p>\n\n

Not that I have anything untoward to hide… I revel in being the most boring person I know!<\/p><\/div>

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