Yes, you’re being watched
Published 12:01 am Thursday, February 10, 2011
A new poll shows that most people who use Facebook and Google are either “somewhat” or “very” concerned about their privacy when using one of the top two Internet sites.
(Did they preface the USA Today/Gallup Poll with the question: Did you know Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, was recently stalked, in the usual ways, including online — through e-mail and Facebook? He was.)
While respondents admit to their privacy anxiety, technology experts say most people don’t have any idea just how risky it is out there in free-floating data-land.
“Consumers generally do not understand who’s getting access to their data and for what purpose,” Ryan Calo, director of the Consumer Privacy Project at the Stanford University Center for Internet and Society, told USA Today.
The purpose of data tracking is to sell stuff. Unless the tracker is a criminal, in which case the purpose is to steal stuff.
The more we live online, the more accounts we create. Many people find shopping online supremely convenient. But if we were followed in a store they way we are on a website, we would quite naturally freak out at the invasion.
Advertisers have found it so very advantageous to follow your footsteps online. The better to sell you the next thing, aimed specifically at you.
“The only way that happens is through the collection of huge amounts of data about each of us, followed by the sale of the data,” said Michael Fertik, CEO of identity management firm Reputation.com.
And that’s the legal stuff.
Criminals want your information to steal your identity, or to stalk you, or to just create general Web mayhem via viruses. Experts say most people severely underestimate their chances of being infected online.
And that’s because most people aren’t experts. Many are still trying to figure out how to use their computers and electronic devices, so a general fear of being ripped off online, rather than specific fears, is understandable. On the other hand, one doesn’t have to be an expert to get into the hacking game.
Another survey revealed that 32 percent of respondents admitted using a neighbor’s unencrypted Wi-Fi connection. A free eavesdropping software called Firesheep allows almost anyone to effectively hack into your Facebook, Twitter and other accounts, experts say. Firesheep has been downloaded more than 1 million times since last year.
The Web is still very much the Wild West. It’s up to you to defend your territory. Encrypt your Wi-Fi. There are sites that will keep advertisers from tracking you, but of course they want to sell you something, too. Surf and be safe.
