Open Source Lifestyle (LinuxJournal.com article)

[TeraDyne]

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/open-source-lifestyle-privacy-versus-respect

I just saw that link in my Twitter feed, and I think he's right. To quote from the article:


Before the days of Internet searches and Google maps, having an unlisted number really did largely protect you from snoops. Sure, if a person was persistent enough (read: creepy), they could follow you home from work, and learn where you lived. The Internet allows everyone to be slightly creepy, however, and no one is the wiser. Add Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Pownce, YouTube, etc -- and it's very difficult to remain anonymous anymore. It's almost like our lives themselves have become Open Source.

I keep a lot of my life on my LiveJournal and Twitter, and I see his point about it being a good thing in some ways. What do you people think?

[tvtech]

I'd say less that our lives have become open source and more that they are becoming

nightmarishly Orwellian. and if you don't know the reference just think Big Brother, remember he's watching you!

[23meg]

Add Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Pownce, YouTube, etc -- and it's very difficult to remain anonymous anymore. It's almost like our lives themselves have become Open Source.

Related words of wisdom from Eben Moglen:

http://blip.tv/file/492903/

[macogw]

OK it might make me creepy but if I meet someone new, particularly a guy, and we're going to go meet up somewhere that's not close enough to campus for my comfort, I do a quick a Google to check that he's not creepy.

[kutjara]

http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/open-source-lifestyle-privacy-versus-respect

I just saw that link in my Twitter feed, and I think he's right. To quote from the article:



I keep a lot of my life on my LiveJournal and Twitter, and I see his point about it being a good thing in some ways. What do you people think?

That's largely why I don't use any services like MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter or the rest of the "social networking" stuff. Identity theft and virtual stalking are easy enough to do, without handing the creeps the keys to your life. Honestly, some of the stuff people post online, I think half of them believe the Internet is something only they can access..

[original_jamingrit]

I don't agree with how they're using the term 'Open Source'. If my life was open source, that would imply that I'm making available the resources to copy my identity and use it as is or a modified version of it. But problems occur if more than one person uses the same identity...

[cleverselfreferentialname]

Add Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Pownce, YouTube, etc -- and it's very difficult to remain anonymous anymore.

Easy solution:

Flickr: don't have a flickr account in your name, and when friends post pictures of you, give them hell.

Facebook: don't have a facebook account. (or just allow private messages and disable everything else)

Myspace: don't have a myspace account. (or just allow private messages and disable everything else - and by this I mean any non-private method of them communicating with you, such as posting on the front of your myspace)

Twitter: don't have a twitter account.

Pownce: don't have a pownce account.

Youtube: don't have a youtube account.

If you do want to blog, get an account with Nearly Free Speech dot Net, and a Vanilla Visa gift card. Put $50 into the account, and that should keep it up for a couple years, dependent on space and traffic.

It's not really difficult at all. It's not cheap either.

Another nice tactic is to have your home in the name of a revokeable trust, and then demand that all utilities attached to your home are also in the name of the trust. Then have a relative or friend maintain a separate mailing address away from home. Have your memberships and drivers licenses sent to that address.

Your name probably won't show up on zabasearch or 411 until somebody does something stupid and orders you a magazine subscription in your real name, to your real address *cough*cough*. (The risk of this can be reduced by removing your house number from your house. This is illegal in some locales, but I've never known it to be enforced.)

[Foster Grant]

OK it might make me creepy but if I meet someone new, particularly a guy, and we're going to go meet up somewhere that's not close enough to campus for my comfort, I do a quick a Google to check that he's not creepy.

Nope, that's not creepy, just a healthy level of paranoia.

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@jamingrit: You are correct. That is not a correct use of the term "open source." The writer grabbed a buzzword and the copy editors failed to fix it.

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As for me ... my MySpace is nearly blank hasn't been touched in months, my Facebook has next to nothing on it and when (if?) I get my blog started it will have my first name and an email address separate from my personal Gmail account (which has my first and last names attached).

And if I wanted to keep a diary, it would be the old-fashioned analog kind.

[Koori23]

Yeah Mac, that's not creepy. Uh.. The Internet is full of nut cases. I've seen Dateline with Chris Hansen or whatever.

My internet presence is quite low. I doubt anyone on this site knows my actual name. I don't understand Facebook and Twitter, Twitter has a Manson family vibe to it, that creeps me out.