| I'm just going to repost a comment I made during an HN thread on trolling here: ---- "....However, on a general note, I think it is important to realize that every text message you send, every cell phone conversation you have, every post to the CNN forum you make, every tweet you send ... is directly attributable to your IP whether you use your own name or not. With Facebook and Google tracking everything you do, whether you are logged in or not, I would go one step further, and say all of these things are directly attributable to you personally. I would strongly urge young people to really think about what they are putting out there. Consider this, the military was doing the equivalent of credit checks for sensitive positions during the 60s. No one else typically had to have credit checks back then. [Today...] you need a credit check to do ANYTHING, even things that don't require credit. How long before an internet and phone background check is standard in the background checks organizations do before offering jobs? [Saying that it won't happen is naive.] I can tell you the military is doing this sort of screening right now for sensitive positions, but at least you are confronted about it. It still basically ends your career, but they will give you a chance to explain your posts. In the private sector in the future, they will just deep six your application and you won't know what happened. Or they'll let you in at entry level, maybe, and subsequently you'll start running up against an invisible barrier as you try to advance beyond the first or second layer of management. Or you will find resistance to you advancing into management at all. Also be mindful, it can affect more than your professional life. Think about what the background [and credit] checks for apartments will look like in the 2020s. Or what 'dating sites' will be like in the 2020s [perhaps with Google Glass]..." ---- That comment was made in a thread on trolling... but the principle is apropos here as well. Back in the 60's credit and background checks were not commonplace because only security agencies had incentive enough run that information down and collate it for a given person. Security Agencies like... say... National ones. Eventually the process was smoothed out so much that today even a rinky dink property manager in Rochester MN, or Santa Clara CA can run that information down. So they do! Whenever you want to rent an apartment. And employers do as well... whenever you want to get a job. etc. etc. Now think about that in the context of a theoretical "internet and mobile phone profile check". For an apartment? For a job? For a date? For a lawsuit? or for a divorce? or even... Just for the hell of it! Why not? I never liked that lady anyway. So people ask... what are the implications? Well... consider "scope creep". With information of this nature... the number of methods to command your conformity that the government and military can dream up is legion. |
If you're a marketer you can already buy this data from various vendors. The way it works is since everyone signs up for various services with the same email address, they just figure out what your email address is, then scrape out your data from all the services you've signed up for.