I find this startup rather disturbing...
spokeo.com
spokeo.com
This is sort of the 'see-through window' argument - If you live in a sky-scraper and you have sex in front of a window, and somebody takes a photo, is that invasion of privacy? The 'information' was technically already out there, and the photographer merely aggregated it (lets say he also found out who lived in the apartment through information publicly available) and posted it online.
Can aggregation in itself be an act of intrusion? I don't know, but its one hell of an argument to have.
The current start-up is likely to be under similar constraints; unless they're everybody's friend, only publicly accessible information should become available in the first place. And yet it still feels uncomfortable that the aggregation (basically a social-network google-ing of you) is so easy.
A couple of remarks on your second paragraph. I often read the view (Slashdot) that if you are in public, or publicly visible, you have no expectation of privacy. This is false in many legislations.
I cannot comment on U.S. law, but in Germany (and I presume in many other European countries), you need a person's consent before publishing their picture.
Exceptions:
a) You are in a public place and you are clearly not the center of the picture.
b) You participated in a public event (where it is likely that pictures are taken).
c) You are a public figure.
Note that even in the case of a public figure you would not be allowed to publish pictures of them engaging in sex.
I would be interested in how other countries handle this.
The data they sell is crap anyway and there will be laws against it if only on the basis of preventing the distribution of false information about people. It's too much work to keep this data clean and that's why they are going to get crushed for spreading lies about people.
Or I could just get a new email, but then I'd have no audience and possibly miss out on some interesting conversation.
'So, the main character gags on a dildo laced with LSD?'
'Yes, sir, it's suppose to symbolize the rape and indoctrination of the indigenous people of the amazon'
On a similar note, use 'leethaxor' when posting your personal opinion in a comment / on a forum... if you make a comment / post in your real name, assume it will show up on the first page when someone googles your name (this actually happens a lot).
Preventing the need for your personal data to be removed is the best way of ensuring your privacy, rather than wishing you had never written that Harry Potter slash fanfic eight years ago under your real name.
And because you felt safe when posting as leethaxor, the result will be much worse than if you just posted sane stuff under your real name.
Deleting your profiles from these places: Priceless
This appears to have been recently added. Of course, this being Facebook, there is no certainty they actually remove all your data. I should note this is different from the "deactivate" option which simply disables the account.
You can remove yourself from the site and deactivate the account, but once you sign up that data will always remain, even if not displayed.
Get a professional vs personal email, if you don't have both already, and manage them both using Gmail (http://look.fo/how-to-manage-multiple-email-accounts-from-gm...).
Potentially, buy a .com/.me for yourself, and use firstname@lastname.me for your professional email.
Spokeo fits in nicely I think, to answer the so what and offer a more rounded view on prospective candidates.
It reduces asymetry of information and reduces the risk of adverse selection by employers. In my opinion, having a good qualification is not enough of a signal to being a good employee. It therefore provides essential information that should ultimately benefit both parties.
That said, I don't think there's any substitute for a good face-to-face interpersonal interaction to determine a person's character or suitability for a role.
The data already exists so compiling it is a routine exercise. I wonder how this kind of service could be fooled or played or worse misattributed?
"... Spokeo fits in nicely I think, to answer the so what and offer a more rounded view on prospective candidates. ... It reduces asymetry (sic) of information and reduces the risk of adverse selection by employers ..."
It would do nothing to reduce risk. In fact I'd go further to say that organisations that hire on unverified information are open to risk of future legal action. This is information gathering at its worst. How does more information of dubious quality on a candidate rule them out distinguishing themselves at a given task? I would propose a counter application to the likes of Spokeo - a registry of potential employers. Free along the line of Craigslist. Someone looking for a job can view lists of companies by sectors and geography, rated by what matters to employees and updated.
This is an example of asymmetry.
Companies may have more money but there are more employees than companies. More data thrown at the employee allows greater scrutiny than what I guess most companies would like. A comprehensive list of companies worldwide ranking them by employee friendliness. More information in choice of companies you work for might make you think twice before you apply. The cream of companies rising to the top? For example imagine if you could view a company that you thought might be a good place to work only to find company information:
- In the press: current directors are constantly in the news for poor financial results, mismanagement or outright law breaking.
- Ethical status: encourage low wages and outsource, made no efforts to improve greenhouse gas emissions
- Enhancement: no effort to supply extra training
- Finances: public finance information reported against the rest of the market. For startups it might also have the VC's or publicly declared finance as this has implications on how a company behaves.
- Blunders: What was the last publicly acknowledged blunder? How was it handled.
- Relations: do they have induction? how do they handle various HR issues?
As you imagine if you start to put the spotlight back on companies that employ people a lot of PR companies will be getting anxious calls.
Maybe it might force change?
"... I don't think there's any substitute for a good face-to-face interpersonal interaction to determine a person's character or suitability for a role. ..."
This is one point I agree on. The problem, the best shady characters can fool all but the most thorough of vetting. I'm not sure that software can play a meaningful part in this process?
My viewpoint is about gaining a more rounded understanding for a person's character, i.e. using all available information on a candidate to try and build a more accurate representation of them.
If Spokeo are offering some sort of verification service such as those offered by Experian et al then I find this to be a flawed model.
I'm not sure more data is better trying to verify a candidate. You can infer things by viewing a candidates flickr + twitter + blog but how do you know it is not being spoofed, manipulated?
On the Internet anyone imitate a dog.
Facebook permitting this app to operate will give it serious legal trouble in the EU.
Methinks they may be simply attempting to log in with that email as your username... maybe Facebook returns a different error depending on non-existent username vs. wrong password. Very dumb of FB in that case, and must be fixed.
Or if you're really scared, don't use LinkedIn/facebook/Myspace et al. I view all of this stuff as filtering anyway. Would I really want to work at a place that is appalled because there's a picture of me drinking beer on facebook?
Uh.
When they launched, Spokeo had a really nice Flash client too for aggregating RSS news about the people you're following.
For those who never visited Spock, you entered an email address and it tracked you all over the web. Now it looks like Spock requires logging in to work.
Really, it's a matter of what you make available. I can't imagine "stalking" somebody ever really being a good use of time. What bad things are there to find? Drunken pictures? And that's on Facebook, behind a wall.
I tell all my friends (hackers and non hackers) to never post any information or picture about you online that you are not comfortable sharing with everyone. This is a great warning to everybody.
In any case, they are probably getting a whole bunch of emails right now.
Muahahahahaha
Last time I checked, nobody is putting your personal information online in a public domain for you.