You Know What – Part 2

By Guy Bunker | December 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment 

Guy Bunker

I wrote previously on Google opening up it’s information on what it knows about you – well, now Yahoo has as well. The Yahoo Ad Interest Manager dashboard allows you to see what you have signed up for and to opt out of various items. It also tells you what else Yahoo knows about you, IP address, location, screen size (!) and any personal info it holds.

From my perspective the best news is that you can opt out from targeted ads completely, of course, if we all did that then there wouldn’t be much of a revenue stream for the search companies… so while I applaud their new found openness and it’s good to see what they have and to better control over your own online experience, it does seem like they may just be shooting themselves in the foot!

Guy Bunker

You Know What?!?!?

By Guy Bunker | November 6, 2009 | 1 Comment 

Guy Bunker

Google has just released a new service, Google Dashboard – which pulls together all the information Google knows about you (except your search history) and shows it to you in one simple page.

OK, so it doesn’t sound that exciting – after all, almost all the information is available already – but in the past you would have to go to lots of different places to find it. I use Google a lot for personal email, and of course there is Google Talk, and then – well, this was where I was surprised at just how many services I had signed up to over the years. I found I even ‘owned’ a document… which it turns out, I had posted, but had forgotten about.

So… why is this of interest. Well, two things really:

1) Your web footprint is probably a lot bigger than you thought and while this is just Google services, it certainly makes you think about all the other things you might have signed up to use and then forgotten about – but they still have your details. (A phisher’s paradise!)

2) Perhaps other companies should start to do the same – so you can readily find out about what information they hold. We could probably do with some standards so that you could then amalgamate the information out there and get a more complete picture – but that’s probably getting a little way ahead of today’s practicality.

The best news with the Google Dashboard is that once you have seen what you have you can then edit / remove it. In an online world a little transparency as to what information companies hold is a big step forwards.

Guy Bunker

Identity & Privacy Forum 2009

By Guy Bunker | May 14, 2009 | 1 Comment 

Guy Bunker

I’m speaking later this week at the Identity and Privacy Forum in London. The agenda for the two days will no doubt be very thought provoking. I’m talking on Data Sharing and some of the issues we have with keeping the data safe. See you there.

idplogo

Privacy And The People

By Guy Bunker | February 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment 

Guy Bunker

So people complained… and the rules were changed. This is all about FaceBook and their change of rules as to who owned the uploaded content – and the change back again to enable people to delete things they have changed their minds about. While this appears to be the answer to our privacy and copyright fears, people should realise that once their information is on the web – it will, most probably, be out there forever… whether they like it or not.

I applaud FaceBook’s openness on their policy but let’s not forget the various search engines that crawl the various sites and then cache the content (even after it’s gone from the original site), or the fact that it is so simple to copy an image and repost it elsewhere.

So, if there are things you would prefer not to put into the public domain – don’t post them on the Internet… not even for a minute… because someone or something will have taken a copy and who knows what will happen to it then – one thing is for sure, it won’t be forgotten or deleted.

(If you haven’t already visited the Internet Archive, then you should… it’s interesting to look back – and also shows what is kept!)

The Truth, You Can’t Handle The… Privacy

By Guy Bunker | November 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment 

Guy Bunker

So, Barack Obama, soon to be the world’s most powerful man is going to give up email and his Blackberry. Why? From a security standpoint and because everything he does, or will do, will be open to public scrutiny and that will include email. Let’s take the security issue first… there is technology out there that locks these devices down, encryption to protect the data and policies which ensure that wrong people can’t get access and if it  is lost it can be remotely wiped and destroyed… so security really isn’t an issue.

How about the public scrutiny, is this because we no longer trust anyone to do the right thing or is it because we want to be be able to criticise everything at everypoint along the way? Whatever the reason it seems wrong to take it to the point where the most effective means of communication in a global society is removed from the person who could probably do with it the most.

The answer… I wish there was one… they say he might still receive email, just not be able to send it (what was the security argument again?) A pretty lame suggestion, a bit like having a pen but not being allowed the ink - after all won’t he just ask an aide to send the reply? I suspect 99% of emails will have been sorted out and filed before he even gets to see them. Obama has young children and while they are not yet texting or emailing or sending Instant Messages they will be by the end of his term of office – how ridiculous to prevent him from being able to communicate with them that way in the future… as that seems to be the best way to stay in touch with not only your children, but also friends and family as well.

The invasion of privacy (both business and personal) is tough for anyone in the limelight. Time to put some trust back into the system. Electronic communication is now commonplace in a social environment as well as a work one, and often the same devices are used for both. A little bit more trust in people is needed to help in this combined work/life electronic world… from the US President-Elect all the way down the tree to the rest of us – with a little more thought on what we do personally in work time and on work devices would also be good.