Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Invasion of the Data Snatchers: The Net Draws Tighter

Thaddeus Howze
Guest Blogger: Thaddeus Howze
Crossposted from 'The Good Men Project'



If you started with the video, you might have had the impression you’d heard (or read) this somewhere before. You have. It was part of a famous 1930 radio broadcast that began like this:
"No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment."
This is the introduction to H.G. Well’s War of the Worlds. In his book, he theorized about a vast and cool intelligence that watched Mankind’s every move before making the decision to come to Earth to conquer and destroy Humanity. Sounds grim. This radio broadcast actually put fear in the hearts of people everywhere. It is one of the 20th century’s greatest hoaxes. How prophetic a hoax Wells would never know.

Why begin a video about the loss of privacy to future technology using language very similar to that broadcast? Mostly because today’s skeptical mindset dismisses the loss of privacy as little more than a hoax, something to be talked about on the news and then forgotten.

But before you decide to forget, let me enlighten you on a few things:

Click here to read the rest of this Good Men Project article.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Spokeo is a Spooky Application That Threatens Your Privacy

My cousin sent me a warning yesterday about a website called Spokeo. It is essentially a 'Big Brother' version of the old fashioned Yellow Pages. You input the name of anyone that you know ... and Spokeo responds with basic contact information, information about your real estate property, satellite photo of your house, estimates your net worth and pulls in photos and comments from various social media platforms.


Spokeo had two entries for me. One was from a work address and the other was from my personal address. I took the steps needed to have my name removed from the Spokeo directory ... and I suggest that all villagers do the same.


Spokeo gives away almost everything about you to any Tom, Dick or Harry that wants to learn about you. All of your private information and net worth along with location of your home, complete with contact information and your social network can be made available for as little as $2.95 per month for all of the sophisticated bill collectors, crooks, degenerates and robbers out there. Not cool.

Removing your name from Spokeo is not difficult:
  1. Search for yourself on Spokeo
  2. Find and copy the URL to your Spokeo page
  3. Click on the 'privacy' link at the bottom right of the Spokeo page
  4. Follow the privacy instructions to remove your information from Spokeo
  5. Paste the URL, your name and type the security phrase.
  6. Then go to your e-mail (might go in your junk e-mail) in-box and confirm (or validate) your removal request.
Spokeo may be spooky ... but, I do appreciate the ease in which they allow you to remove your information from public view.

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Preventing Identity Theft (Richmond)


BDPA Richmond chapter is the 3rd largest chapter in the nation. Much of their success flows from their guiding principle -- 'Educate to Elevate'. One way that the chapter acts on that guiding principle is with monthly program meetings. The March 2008 program meeting topic covers something all of use can learn more about to protect our livelihood ... Preventing Identity Theft. With the enhanced ability to share knowledge so rapidly over the Internet, criminals are using our personal information to arm themselves with more knowledge about how to use your assets towards their personal pleasures. We must beat them at their game. In order to accomplish this, we need to know what tools to add to our arsenal.

BETF-Blog readers have this personal invitation to protect yourselves and your family from the information snatching predators, by gaining additional knowledge at this month's program meeting in Richmond, VA. The meeting will take place at the Genworth Financial Headquarters building (6620 W. Broad St; Richmond, VA 23230)on Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 6:00 pm.

If you have questions or wish to discuss further you can reach out to the BDPA Richmond chapter by email or phone (800.727-2372).