seegers says... - Comments

Ralph: Changes

nospam@example.com (Ralph) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:42:12 +0100

Yes, you look your age. Bald.

Nabeel: Data privacy

nospam@example.com (Nabeel) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 14:13:08 +0200

I am the person Rene is talking about here, the one who submitted his email to a strange third party based in the US.

To make this post, I just had to fill in my name, my email and my homepage out of which only the last one was optional. I don't know which German server Rene is using, or where this email address will be stored, where it will be distributed to, and whether people are gonna make money out of these pieces of information. I do know that all the above is possible.

I work at a call center for pocket money as I'm a student and we routinely call people who would rather have kept their information private. It is unfortunate their information is out there, I agree, but please try to understand my argument here (since this debate is more about ethics and/or values more than anything else).

They call this this Information Age. Information is power, they say. You can't do a lot of things you do (like posting this comment on this site here) without revealing certain information (at least in the virtual world). It's almost never necessary, but you end up doing it anyway.

I had to attend a conference in India and needed to apply for a visa, so I applied at the travel agency the embassy person told me to apply at (note: not some random travel agency). One day later, I start getting calls ON MY HOME PHONE NUMBER about some cheap calling service to India. I didn't choose to have my information sent to some dingy call center in India, but I was okay with it.

Why? You may ask that. Because I believe that's the risk you run the moment you first created your email address. If you created it in an Internet Club on a public PC, I do remember that back then they used key-loggers to get addresses of girls to sell to guys (well, not always to sell; sometimes to just distribute).

Things are much more advanced now. I used Orkut as my primary social networking platform before I joined Facebook. To export my friends' list, I just had to enter my orkut user name and password into Facebook. I did the same for exporting my friends from my Gmail contact list. And yes, that is precisely what I did on that shopittome.com website.

My justification would be that the website seemed useful to me and I decided to share it with everyone. SHARE being the key word in that sentence.

So my good friend Rene, I get that you are not paranoid about some XYZ company having your email address; rather, you're paranoid about some XYZ company having your email address against your will. But your email is stored in all your friends' address books! And Facebook, as we all know, sells information (even though they promise it's never confidential information, but still). You don't know how many of your friends share their address books with third parties, and how often. You have no idea about all the companies that may have your contact information. So I really think this is something that shouldn't bother you.

I understand you enjoy much better laws in Germany regarding this. But the moment you are online, you are not in Germany any more. There is no Cyber Police even now. And there are no laws.

Personally, I embrace the Information Age, and I prefer that all information be free and available to all. I hate restricted access. I hate boundaries. I have seen the negative side of it (read: stalkers and stalking) but those are exceptions to the rule. Most people who are online today, I think, are okay with information sharing against their will.

Ying: Weird Food

nospam@example.com (Ying) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:23:04 +0200

The chinese characters were probably referring to 'combination', of jiao3 zi (the elongated looking gyozas aka dumplings) and xiao3 long2 bao1 (the round looking buns with soup on the inside). No idea what synthesize was referring to. But the combination looks delicious. slurp

rene: Special Guest

nospam@example.com (rene) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 08:19:52 +0200

Well, I would agree normally, but this little guy was so occupied in our leftovers that I wish I had my good camera with me for some better, more detailed pictures.

Ying: Special Guest

nospam@example.com (Ying) — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 17:25:11 +0200

DISGUSTING.

rene: O2: Avoidance Strategy?

nospam@example.com (rene) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 18:45:43 +0200

Na, your account was always separate and everything is settled already.

There is no logical explanation why my bills would have been sent to your address. Also, i receive my bills online, not in paper form for years already.

Ying: O2: Avoidance Strategy?

nospam@example.com (Ying) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:59:43 +0200

you know what, i have a funny feeling that they might have delivered the bills to my old address. whatever the misunderstanding could be.

Ying: O2: How do they calculate?

nospam@example.com (Ying) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 20:22:07 +0200

complicated. don't even feel like trying to understand.

Ying: First week pictures animated

nospam@example.com (Ying) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 04:06:25 +0200

Nice.

rene: So long and thanks for all the fish II

nospam@example.com (rene) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:53:36 +0200

Just search for the title on the internet

Ying: So long and thanks for all the fish II

nospam@example.com (Ying) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 12:21:01 +0200

Fish?

rené: They are here...

nospam@example.com (rené) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:22:10 +0200

Thanks, now I know the secret message

Candice: They are here...

nospam@example.com (Candice) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 23:10:06 +0200

Hi Rene,

The chinese words on your passport means" National Science Counci:l Taiwan-Germany graduate student summer conference seminar, Department of CSIE in NCKU."

cheers
Candice

rené: New exam date,

nospam@example.com (rené) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:54:41 +0200

Mange greetings tilbake fra Sør

Thomas Harbert: New exam date,

nospam@example.com (Thomas Harbert) — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 10:17:15 +0200

Just for fun!!!!
Hilsen nordfra!!!
med gleden onkelen din!!!