I watched Eagle Eye quite some time back, and I can’t stop thinking about my online activities after the watching movie. Sure, it is a work of fiction, but somehow or other, I find myself being convinced that we (in general) are spending too much time online, and that we are exposing too much of ourselves on the internet.
I’m not sure about you, but I do have a tonne of online accounts — from emails to online banking accounts to my blogs to the forums that I am a part of to photo sharing sites to social media sites to online bookmarks, you name it, I (think I) have it!
So today, I started doing some account-housekeeping. I have just sent an email each to Bloglines, Amazon Associates and PayPerPost to request that my account be deleted from their respective systems because “I did not utilize it as much as I thought I would”.
This decision is also spurred by something that happened quite recently. A Malaysian government department used a picture of mine (which I uploaded into Flickr) in a brochure that they designed and circulated nationwide. My picture was used on the front page of the brochure but as the photographer, I wasn’t given the credit that I so deserved. I wrote to the said department, and the Deputy Director said that the picture was downloaded by one of their interns and they thought the picture belonged to that intern. I accepted their explanation, and I explained that they could be sued for using pictures without crediting the photographers.
I have this cute little notebook into which I wrote all my online accounts and passwords, so in the next few days, I shall be combing the little notebook, removing whatever online accounts that I am not active in (so that I can sign up for other stuff that I am currently interested in) :upsidedown: It is going to take a while, but I guess this is something that needs to be done sooner rather than later. Plus, I can’t go to bed knowing that I have revealed too much personal information on the internet :grr:
Are you worried about your online presence? Do you think you have revealed too much personal information on the internet? What do you do about it?
Updates: As of Nov 14th, I have opted out of 13 online accounts that I very seldom use. THIRTEEN!
Have you heard of a program called True Crypt? It is free and it will create a virtual hard drive that is encrypted with one password. This drive can be configured with many different types of encryption, you get to choose your level. Speed or Security.
This password for your encrypted virtual hard drive should be your strongest password and something you can keep in a safe deposit box.
Now you can store all your documents, without their own passwords in this virtual drive. Load it whenever you want and close it when you log off. I also keep a passwords file inside this drive for all my online accounts.
So even if you system gets hacked they need either your strong password or a real long time…
Since you are at the beginning of your organization, I think this is a great start for you. I have no affiliation with True Crypt, I just think it is perfect, since its free.
http://www.truecrypt.org/
~ Jim
Hi Jim, I have never heard of True Crypt, but the strong points of using the virtual drive are also the same points why I am afraid of trying it. Words like “virtual drive”, “encrypt”, “strong passwords” scare me, LOL.
But thanks for the recommendation. I am sure some of my readers will be brave enough to try it out :D
But True Crypt doesn’t solve the issue if we reveal too much information on the internet. For example, you have a Facebook account, a Twitter account, a blog and what-have-yous, how do you ensure that you do not reveal too much personal information? When it gets “too much”, it comes to a point where the information controls you, not the other way round. But this is just my point of view :D
It is never too late to regroup and eliminate all the accounts that are useless. Unsubscribe brutally. I keep doing this every now and then.
Wherever possible, and where it is allowed, you should also delete all details from your social network portals.
I think it’s….just a changing world. Yes, it’s risky, but eventually social norms and all will evolve to adapt. Maybe it’s because I’ve grown up with these technologies all my life. Yes, there’s a lot of personal information about me online, for example. But it’s opened more opportunities than anything else.
In any relationship (friendly, professional, whatever), you are taking a risk. To build any relationship, you need to reveal things about yourself, and that is always risky. The web opens up new opportunities for new relationships, but in doing so, it opens more risks as well. In my opinion, it’s worth it. These relationships – and the communities built from those relationships – can be really powerful, and so, yeah. That’s why I’m willing to reveal that much personal information about myself.
Comment deleted because:
Derrick, I am glad that you see the value of putting much of your personal information on the internet, but unfortunately, I don’t see it. I used to think that the internet is just that — inter net.
But these days, like you said, times have changed. Soon, I believe, our personal information on the internet will no longer be something that we have control over. I am sure you’d want to control what you put on the internet, wouldn’t you?
Don’t worry. ^^ We have anti virus and firewall. :)
I’m not sure about other parts of the world but apparently in Malaysia, there is hardly any awareness about intellectual property (IP) so that is why software piracy is still running wild. Recall your undergraduate years, did you or your coursemates happened to copy and paste text and photos from the Internet and submit them in your assignment?
Well, at least in Malaysia identity theft is not a big issue compared to the US and Europe but with more and more people getting into the IT industry, and some of them have hidden agendas, there might be possibilities that our identity could be forged, fabricated, manipulated to do not so good things.
There is no longer a clear border between private information and public information as we march into an era of ever evolving intelligence systems. Nevertheless it’s still ok that we are not overly dependent on technology in our daily activities. I fully agree to what Derrick says but Internet is just like everything else, a double edged sword which could get what you want and at the same time hurting yourself. So I suggest balancing yourself between the online and offline worlds.
Horizon, there is no such thing as invincible / impenetrable antiXXX system (whatever you call it). Each system is being built with a backdoor so that if something went wrong the programmer can override to bypass / shutdown /debug the error. If this backdoor is being known to the bad guys then everything will be chaotic. Therefore there is always a war happening daily without our knowing, the battle between black hats and white hats.
I agree to Kevin Mitchnick, one of the world’s famous hacker/cracker that it’s is human factor that causes a system to go nuts, and this happens especially when you are dealing with more advanced system which requires real time response from the users. Take COMODO firewall Pro and ZoneAlarm Firewall for example, they are very poweful yet very complicated to the extent that not every average user knows how to harness the full power. One click by mistake and you will accidentally allow well hidden and camouflaged malicious code to be excecuted. In the end, the computer (smart) still need us (dumbass) to work flawlessly.
Thanks for sharing the information with us, Loony. I guess not many people are scaredy cats like me :)
I can’t stand the thought that I have revealed too much of myself online (this includes my personal information, my photos, my writings, my everything), especially now that I have realized how much my intellectual property means to me, and how easily other people can make what belongs to me, theirs.
I am afraid too especially when people google your name ever now and then to check on you. And to me, they are more spying! *yuk* That is why I rarely post any pictures of my face in my blog anymore. *teeheehee*