Is Privacy Dead or has it just become Publicized?

With the recent innovations like Google Maps: Street View and MSN/Live's Virtual Earth, there has been growing concern about privacy. No-one really says that better than private investigator Steven Rambam, who is mentioned in the blog Privacy Is Dead: Get Over It [HomelandStupidity.us] (Homeland Stupidity contains links to Steven Rambam's Nov. 16, 2006 presentation, "Privacy is Dead: Get Over It.")

While Privacy is very difficult to maintain in this technological-centric society, it may still be possible, or at least controllable... Some of this is explained in further detail at the Opinion Editorial Is privacy possible in the digital age? [MSNBC.com] there is also a lot of easy common-sense things to avoid to help maintain one's own privacy. For example, avoid publishing blogs that reveal information that you wouldn't want seen in public... Be it your boss, your grandma, or worse-- someone that wants to trash your reputation. Remember that there are sites out there like Archive.org and Google's "search cache" that maintain a "back up" copy of a decent bit of the internet... The first search for "booting from the shadow of a broken mirror" at Google reveals IndigoJake.com's Black Friday Shopping, from November, 2006. IndigoJake.com is too new to be archived at Archive.org.

Do enough digging around, and you can find the other blogs that I'm associated with, including blogs that are much more personal than this one. It can be a little scary. I've dug up old friends from middle school with creative Google searching! In this situation, the best one can do is to control what information is posted on the internet. Anonymity is difficult, if not impossible, flexing basic control may be the best option for many out there today.

There have even been lists of search queries posted on the internet, including easy tracing options that can return what user, and eventually, the person and home address/phone of the searcher! While searching for directions to the nearest air port may not be much of a problem, searching up about "whistle blowing" or medical problems may end up with one getting a pink-slip at work or denied health benefits when applying for insurance.

What is easy to overlook is just how much information one posts to the internet, and how easy it is to index and use that information. For a potent example of this, check out the social engineering experiment, "We Feel Fine," and tinker a bit... The results were astonishing to me.

Even modern computing technology, including major programs such as Microsoft Window's Genuine Advantage report back to Microsoft information, albeit basic information, about your computer and it's connection to the internet. That's why when one changes certain components in a computer, the Windows Activation wizard will appear.

Is this a good thing? Many people say no... However, there are still many people that prefer to purchase a vehicle with OnStar available and will sign up for Kroger shopping cards, not even giving a second thought to the fact that they are permitting more and more information is being tracked about them. There is no need for George Orwell's "1984" to happen... But we may already be on the road to it, however in our reality, it is being pitched as "just a few pieces of information that will bring discounts on products and better service..." However, it may also lead to employer's later finding out what medical issues one has or lovers finding out about that ex from six months ago.