[ExI] Privacy is dead

[BillK]

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-9995207-83.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
 July 20, 2008 1:31 AM PDT
The Internet -- a private eye's best friend
Posted by Elinor Mills

Quotes:

Rambam says he searches on social networks to find photos of what
people he is researching look like, the first step in any
investigation. He gets a lot of other vital data from those sites,
like hometown, age, relationship status, school and work history,
hobbies, and friends and acquaintances to interview. With Twitter, he
can often see where they are right now, or at least in the recent
archived past.

He uses job sites to see someone's resume, date of birth, address and
work history, to find former employees of companies he is researching
and to see what job openings they have and compare salary levels. And
then there are sites like Don'tDateHimGirl.com and Who'sARat.com where
you can find what a person's enemies have to say.

There also are vast stores of data based on peoples' Web and computer
activities being amassed by technology companies that can be easily
used to connect a specific individual to specific activities and
information. For example, end user license agreements allow for
location data to be sent back to the manufacturer every time a
customer logs in and photos and burned CDs and DVDs have unique serial
numbers for tracking, he said.

Then there is the "snitch" in everyone's pocket -- the cell phone.
Unlike your activity on a computer, "a cell phone can be immediately
traced to you and you have it with you 24/7," Rambam said.

"Cell phones change everything," because of their location-based
technology, he said. "I'm able to know who you talked to, where you
are, what you do and what you like just from cross-referencing cell
phone (data)."

etc..........

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Also of interest:
<http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1486314/social_networks_help_detectives_solve_crimes/>

Social Networks Help Detectives Solve Crimes
Posted on: Saturday, 19 July 2008, 18:50 CDT

Popular social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace are helping
detectives solve crimes, and are becoming an important resource for
employers vetting job applicants.

One example: 20-year-old Joshua Lipton, who just two weeks after he
was charged in a drunken driving crash that seriously injured a woman,
attended a Halloween party dressed as a prisoner. Pictures from the
party showed him dressed in a black-and-white striped shirt and an
orange jumpsuit labeled "Jail Bird."

It's not hard to guess what soon happened in the age of the Internet.
Someone posted them on the social networking site Facebook. And
prosecutor Jay Sullivan offered that as remarkable evidence during
Lipton's drunken-driving case.
Sullivan used the pictures to portray Lipton as an unrepentant young
man who partied while his victim recovered in the hospital.
A judge sided with Sullivan and called the pictures depraved when
sentencing Lipton to two years in prison.

etc.....

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So far, the loss of privacy seems to be very unbalanced.
Keeping the proles subjugated is the main objective.

Not much sign yet of the optimistic hope that it will help keep the
folk on top in line as well.


BillK