Privacy online is getting a run for its money at the moment, with Google getting slapped for storing whole emails and URLs encapsulated inside packets captured by Streetview Cars and Eric Butler’s Firesheep flaming up a storm by showing just how easy it can be to capture cookie based sessions on a shared wireless network.
And I’m getting rather sick of the negative waves Moriarty!
I appreciate that, legally, your data should be considered private unless you release it, but the current furore surrounding Google’s (allegedly) accidental interception of personal data highlights a very worrying trend – people aren’t prepared to look after their data!
Most of the governments and bodies complaining about these privacy invasions have been warning us for years to shred our sensitive paper documents to prevent them falling into nefarious hands. And for the most part we’ve listened.
So far as the Google Grab goes, the affected parties are probably those who would never dream of posting cash, use registered mail for cheques, change their PINs and never write them down and would assume you had gone quietly mad if you showed up to a party wearing a t-shirt with your date of birth & mother’s maiden name on it.
These same people who obsessively keep their receipts for fear of some crook collecting enough of them to reassemble their card details and take them for every penny, don’t seem to give a damn that they may be broadcasting their internet browsing habits for all to view.
They wouldn’t stick their bank statements in a box labelled “Bank Statements” and ‘file them’ on their front door step so why would they use an insecure network? Likewise they’re not going to read your credit card number out loud in a crowded train station so why would they check their email over a shared WiFi network without encryption of some form?
Google may have done wrong in collecting the information but surely they have highlighted that these people’s networks made no effort to prevent the collection of data… and who’s fault is that?
My point is this – we are responsible for the safety & security of our own data; this concept is understood and embraced in the physical world so why do they find it so hard in the virtual world?
