There Is No Such Thing As Privacy
It tickles me to hear about trying to keep accounts and posts and things private online. I used to feel shocked at the fact that many have stopped paying attention to what's going on around them, but now I just find it entertaining in a depressive, yet amusing sort of way. Is there an emoticon for that? It's been raining non stop this week due to hurricane Alberto, so I'm staying at a relative's until things dry. Time to write, interact and do my yoga, I guess.
I found out this morning a lady had an altercation with her Amazon Echo with Alexa. Alexa apparently records everything you say and whatever's happening in your home when "she" hears her name. And here's an added "bonus"; while she and her husband were talking, a phone number was mentioned. Alexa recorded part of their conversation, heard the number, and sent that clip to that number from her mobile phone. The number belonged to a co-worker of hers, and they received her private conversation snippet! Of course, this was embarrassing. Lesson: unplug your Alexa when you're not in the mood to use it. I'm guessing it records everything to send back to the company for "marketing research". (Wow.. a lot of quotations in here.. am I being sarcastic?)
Let's explore more of this. Did you know most of your social media apps, along with anything "Google" (there's another one) makes a copy of your political affiliations and personal interests? I know Facebook does it for certain. If you search through your settings, you'll eventually find it. It assumes you are this or that, and lists that attribute with your name. You are then forever branded a Republican or Lady Gaga lover or whatever the heck FB decided you were, based on your responses and account activity. You then get annihilated with ads based on these preferences that were set in your honor. What else? Oh.. I do hope everyone knows their GPS is constantly aware of where they are, regardless of the personal settings on phones and Ipads.
There are surveillance cameras almost everywhere in public, including gyms and libraries and street corners. I even knew a lady who'd been secretly videotaped while using the bathroom in a department store. This wasn't done by the store. It was installed under the radar by a shady operation that fed the real-time activities through someone's computer and uploaded it to a porn site. True web time voyeurism. Ladies, please look around before you use the public toilet. There are some freaky people out there. But enough of the camera gear..
I can understand shock at the notion that we're being recorded and watched at every turn, but what I can't understand is the surprise when someone's able to find a photo on the internet that came from a social media account supposedly set to private. There is no private, guys. There are easy ways to obtain access to someone's private photos. What you can do, however, is understand that once you make the commitment to be online, you are online. Forever. Take note of it, and learn to use it to your advantage instead of letting it use you. That means learn to drown out data about yourself that isn't to your liking by flooding the internet with things associated with you that you do want people to see. It means making an effort to look in your settings bar for every account you use. And for some, like myself, it means using a pseudonym instead of a legal surname. This is a way for women to avoid past abusive relationships. You can't find any real data attached to my legal name, because I've never used my legal name online. (Do NOT use public Wifi when banking online.) While there will never be complete safeguards, you can at least minimize your risks. Think of it as locking your door every time you leave the apartment. If someone really wants to get in, they will. But you can give them a hard time.
But please, whatever the case, please understand that once you go online and decide to play, you're playing with the big boys. There is no privacy, and there is no erasing what's there. All you can do is flood it out or learn to think before posting. Don't trust that your comments on Twitter you have deleted won't still be there. Someone could have taken a snapshot of it already. Don't trust that Google isn't making copies of all your phone pictures and storing them online somewhere. Understand settings in phone and browser accounts, so you won't be surprised when someone sees a selfie you took in private that Google decided to upload to that invisible storage cloud in the sky.
If you are not tech savvy, get that way.
I found out this morning a lady had an altercation with her Amazon Echo with Alexa. Alexa apparently records everything you say and whatever's happening in your home when "she" hears her name. And here's an added "bonus"; while she and her husband were talking, a phone number was mentioned. Alexa recorded part of their conversation, heard the number, and sent that clip to that number from her mobile phone. The number belonged to a co-worker of hers, and they received her private conversation snippet! Of course, this was embarrassing. Lesson: unplug your Alexa when you're not in the mood to use it. I'm guessing it records everything to send back to the company for "marketing research". (Wow.. a lot of quotations in here.. am I being sarcastic?)
Let's explore more of this. Did you know most of your social media apps, along with anything "Google" (there's another one) makes a copy of your political affiliations and personal interests? I know Facebook does it for certain. If you search through your settings, you'll eventually find it. It assumes you are this or that, and lists that attribute with your name. You are then forever branded a Republican or Lady Gaga lover or whatever the heck FB decided you were, based on your responses and account activity. You then get annihilated with ads based on these preferences that were set in your honor. What else? Oh.. I do hope everyone knows their GPS is constantly aware of where they are, regardless of the personal settings on phones and Ipads.
There are surveillance cameras almost everywhere in public, including gyms and libraries and street corners. I even knew a lady who'd been secretly videotaped while using the bathroom in a department store. This wasn't done by the store. It was installed under the radar by a shady operation that fed the real-time activities through someone's computer and uploaded it to a porn site. True web time voyeurism. Ladies, please look around before you use the public toilet. There are some freaky people out there. But enough of the camera gear..
I can understand shock at the notion that we're being recorded and watched at every turn, but what I can't understand is the surprise when someone's able to find a photo on the internet that came from a social media account supposedly set to private. There is no private, guys. There are easy ways to obtain access to someone's private photos. What you can do, however, is understand that once you make the commitment to be online, you are online. Forever. Take note of it, and learn to use it to your advantage instead of letting it use you. That means learn to drown out data about yourself that isn't to your liking by flooding the internet with things associated with you that you do want people to see. It means making an effort to look in your settings bar for every account you use. And for some, like myself, it means using a pseudonym instead of a legal surname. This is a way for women to avoid past abusive relationships. You can't find any real data attached to my legal name, because I've never used my legal name online. (Do NOT use public Wifi when banking online.) While there will never be complete safeguards, you can at least minimize your risks. Think of it as locking your door every time you leave the apartment. If someone really wants to get in, they will. But you can give them a hard time.
But please, whatever the case, please understand that once you go online and decide to play, you're playing with the big boys. There is no privacy, and there is no erasing what's there. All you can do is flood it out or learn to think before posting. Don't trust that your comments on Twitter you have deleted won't still be there. Someone could have taken a snapshot of it already. Don't trust that Google isn't making copies of all your phone pictures and storing them online somewhere. Understand settings in phone and browser accounts, so you won't be surprised when someone sees a selfie you took in private that Google decided to upload to that invisible storage cloud in the sky.
If you are not tech savvy, get that way.
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