By any standard, 2010 was not a good year for privacy rights. While a growing number of people and companies seem to be concerned about the issue of protecting the most intimate details of our lives, technology is making it harder and harder to do so. Whether it be something as innocent as Google "accidentally" collecting 600 gigabytes of unsecured private data while driving cars around the country in search of wifi networks, or something as sinister as tracking company RapLeaf using sophisticated technology to create incredibly detailed profiles of people (including names, email addresses, shopping habits, voting history, and so on) and then selling that data to advertisers; this has been a year full of headlines about privacy violations.
So, in the spirit of hoping that 2011 brings more privacy and more protection, we at TigerText are proud to present the following... a list of the 5 worst Privacy Violations of 2010.
5. Foursquare -- The popular social networking tool that allows users to "check-in" and let their friends know where they are at any given moment ran into a real embarrassment in June. A programmer in San Francisco by the name of Jesper Anderson figured out that he could write a program to keep track of where Foursquare users were going by examining the pictures that Foursquare publishes every time someone checks-in at a location. He says he captured close to a million check-ins in just a couple weeks. This means that his simple program knew where thousands of Foursquare users were going at any given moment of the day. He knew if they were out shopping, at home hanging out, at work, or just about anything else. His program was even able to get around Foursquare's privacy settings that were supposed to only allow "friends" to know when someone was checking-in. It was a bit like he had a GPS on each Foursquare user in the San Francisco area. Talk about scary! Foursquare was able to fix the bug and now has a setting that keeps your location private from outsiders if you want.
4. Karen Owen -- Owen was just a fun-loving, athlete-worshiping co-ed at Duke University until she decided to write a "mock thesis" on her sexual exploits with members of Duke's swimming, lacrosse, and tennis teams. She claims she only meant to send the paper to a few of her friends, but it somehow got loose and ended up with millions of people viewing it all over the internet. The "thesis" included photos, names, and explicit details of Owen's trysts with the players. There is no question that these athletes' sex lives never should have become public. As for Owen, she claims she never meant for the document to be leaked and become a viral sensation. However, there is talk that she will get a book deal out of it and Law & Order: SVU did an episode that closely mimicked Owen's story. Still, one has to wonder how Owen will feel in 20 years when she has to explain to her children why they cannot do an internet search on her name.
3. Tyler Clementi -- Tyler was an 18-year old freshman at Rutgers University. After his roommate streamed a video of Tyler having sex with another man, Clementi (who had been trying to keep his homosexuality secret) committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. The story attracted national headlines and incited a strong debate about cyber-bullying and how to control it. The tragedy here was not just Clementi's life being cut short, but that Clementi's roommate Dhuran Ravi and another Rutgers student being charged with invasion of privacy and perhaps a hate crime. It served as a painful reminder that our youth simply have no idea of the consequences of the internet usage. No story more starkly demonstrated the power of modern technology to capture the most intimate details of our lives and lay them bare for the world to see.
2. Facebook Changes Everyone's Privacy Settings -- In April of this year, Facebook quietly changed the privacy settings on every single user's account so that the default was to make almost nothing private. As a result, unless you actively changed your setting, details like your birthday, gender, place of birth, religious beliefs, friends, family members, schools attended, and other intimate details would be available to anyone who wanted them. It was a terrifying decision to leak information from the organization that so many of us have trusted with the story of our lives, our likes, and so much more. Facebook quickly backpedaled and forced all users to choose their privacy settings, but the damage had already been done. Facebook, already with a sketchy reputation, soon became known as one of the worst privacy abusers.
1. Wikileaks -- Wikileaks claims that it exists to ensure transparency, but we are rapidly learning that transparency comes with consequences. The US government admits that its standing in the international community has been hurt by the leak of many confidential State Department communiqués. International aid organizations say some of the Wikileaks data has put civilians who work with them in danger. Even some journalists have criticized Wikileaks for its data dumps and displaying a lack of editorial control over the data it leaks. Most recently, Wikileaks claims it will next target a major American bank, an implication that has already caused stock in Bank of America to decline, costing shareholders millions of dollars. Wikileaks founder says he plans to leak data that "could take down a bank or two," a situation that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars in bailouts. What's more, all the publicity surrounding Wikileaks may be encouraging an atmosphere where individuals think privacy violations are to be celebrated and fun. In an era where technology is making access to private data easier than ever, nothing could be worse.
There you have it, the rogue's gallery of the worst privacy abuses of the year. It is not a pretty picture.
Here's hoping 2011 brings us something different.
Jeffrey Evans is the CEO of TigerText, a text messaging service that offers and promotes increased privacy standards in communication.
Follow Jeffrey Evans on Twitter: www.twitter.com/YourPrivacy
Whatever you do, keep safe, share only what you can tell everyone on the web because whatever you share there, be it private or not might be shared with the world one day as the Internet is getting more and more clever in the way it harvests all information placed therein. Semantic web is clever but something even more clever will surely be here in another few years.
WHY WHY WHY would we bail out these effers AGAIN!!!???
The reason the world is so full of corruption and violence is because so much of what really happens in our name is hidden from us.
For once, the great eye is turned on our masters and this is a loss of privacy? What about all that transparent government hoo-haa Obama was yammering about a while back? Haven't heard much about that lately have we? In fact, this is one of most opague governments I have lived under. Privacy is for people, not for governments and corporations.
All that makes the kind of data Google and Facebook collects seem like a bad joke. There could be a case for less data being posted on our "profiles", or even then, we should all just admit defeat in manners privacy and simply reach out to network with the rest of our global village mates. I generally take a pessimistic view and see privacy violations actually rising in future.
Last year at this time While the people of Gaza celebrated the new-year with lovely showers of phosphor and nuclear weapons we celebrated ours with fireworks and Champaign promising them that this time, We will not interfere with their privet affairs or relations with the invaders and occupiers of their land 1557 dead in 21 days 1257 0f them are women and children the difference was that they where splattered all over the place as they stood on the ground instead of having shameful thoughts which have led to suicide.
Tell me in Gods name, was this our way of setting an example to the world of what minding our business should be like or was this our funny way of expressing our support of freedom but not for all
And as surely as love exists, just so surely were there the top five highlights of her life: 5) her four-square meals daily we managed to provide, 4) her exagerated Xploits, if not in pools, then wherever, 3) bypassed (she wept with me), 2) her "muzzelbook" experiences that gave away her true identity, Wassy Flame, and 1) "weaky old leaks," which were always for me to contend with.
Its a small friendly crowd here, and she would want me to inform, she always loved greeting strangers and old friends and right or left she never asked or cared....
Spin much, pal?
Government didn't "admit" jack.
Admission is something you don't want to do.
Contrary to your portrayal, our government pushed and pushed on a fallacious talking point to get people like you to repeat it.
Just in case you have any use for facts (and that's not what I'm smelling when I read your article):
Our government was given the offer to review and redact hazardous information before EVERY Wikileaks release that has ever occurred.
If anyone jeopardized anyone, it was your government.
And secondly:
"Wikileaks founder says he plans to leak data that "could take down a bank or two," a situation that would cost taxpayers billions of dollars in bailouts."
So the citizens of a free nation should not be told of malfeasance at a bank because it could harm the economy?
As a CEO, I'm sure that logic works out perfectly to you.
To any sane man in possession of his reason and his heart, that would represent the total spiritual death of the law.
And I wouldn't worry about the citizenry standing for another bail out.