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Comment by pluc | Hacker News Reader

So what's a non creepy use for this?

I think the "non creepy" use is really just making people aware how easy it is to correlate all your different traces online. It's like when someone released on HN a tool that would link various HN accounts (and maybe Reddit accounts too IIRC), but by looking at commenter word choice similarity.

It makes people realize that actual anonymity online is a smokescreen.

Finding usernames that you can register and own across all social networks.

*For some very narrow, twisted definitions of the word "own"

Seeing what it finds about yourself?

Is it creepy if you google a job candidate?

In many parts of the world it is illegal for a recruiting party to search for information on a candidate without their consent.

Whichever parts of the world that may be, you can guarantee that it happens anyways.

Unenforceable rules are never followed.

What are laws that prohibit it?

One example is Finnish legislation: https://finlex.fi/fi/laki/ajantasa/2004/20040759#L2P4 Sadly only available in Finnish. The law applies both to employees and candidates.

EDIT: Looks like there is an English translation. See section 4 of: https://finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2004/en20040759_2019034...

I recently Googled myself, and in the first page of results I ran across some shit AI website that scrapes random web content about people and attempts to summarize it. It got my current occupation completely and comically wrong -- as in, it has nothing at all to do with tech.

If you're trying to figure out anything about me from social media or other such random web pages, I don't care to have anything to do with you, and I don't care what you're led to believe about me. I suppose this is born of privilege, but the only contacts I care to make are directly via people I already have a relationship with.

Just did the same, and the form to get your data removed asks for 3 items of personal information "to confirm your identity" lol.

Edit: the site I found was "zoominfo".

The only personal information they're going to get from me will be what's in my libel lawsuit.

Clean up the online footprint for someone that hires you to do so before they run for office. I don't remember every single web site I've every signed up for going back to when I started using the Internet, and neither can you.

Internet Archive likely renders that point moot, no? There a plenty of sites that index tweets outside of Twitter for example... at least there used to be

The Archive is much less discoverable. There's no search engine for the wayback machine.

You can request them to take down personally identifying information about yourself. They respond quickly and seem to have someone employed to handle GDPR requests.

That's the great part- there isn't. Following people you like on every platform I guess.

Cybercrime research; locate malicious actors across social web.

It’s also a great education tool to showcase the need to be careful about internet hygiene. The creeps have done this sort of things for decades

Like hiring a PI to follow people around to educate people about about stalkers.

Letting a person sign up on your site and choose to import stuff they've put onto other sites under that username, maybe.

Realistically it's doing this to people who deserve it, trouble is that no one is going to agree on that criteria

Who deserves it, and what is "it"?

To socially harass and drive to suicide anyone that doesn't conform to the dominate cultural outlook. Think that's creepy? Well, you just made the list!

I’m on a lot of lists and still have TSA Precheck, Global Entry, can hold US security clearances, pass professional background checks

so what are you lesser relevant people worried about exactly?

What lists are you on?

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