If you have an email ending in @hotmail.com, @live.com or @outlook.com (or any other Microsoft-related domain), please consider changing it to another email provider; Microsoft decided to instantly block the server's IP, so emails can't be sent to these addresses.
If you use an @yahoo.com email or any related Yahoo services, they have blocked us also due to "user complaints"
-UE

Popular websites/services are making it increasingly difficult to separate one's profiles

edited 2012-08-06 22:14:37 in Webspace
Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human

or generally do effective profile quarantining to decide whether people who know you in one place can find you in another.


Google is integrating all its services.  GMail, Youtube, and Google Plus with Hangouts.


Facebook's founder believes in anti-anonymity and integration of all of people's online experiences.


Facebook is getting itself integrated into the comment sections of lots of sites, from random local news channels'/papers' websites to major websites (like ones I can't name off the top of my head right now) to major internet culture sites such as KnowYourMeme.  Heck, you have branches of U.S. state governments--such as the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles--asking people to "like" them on Facebook.


Twitter is also integrating its stuff everywhere, with sites asking people to tweet their presence on and reactions to pages.  And there's stuff with tumblr, reddit, and so on.


 


No, sorry, I don't like this.


I don't want people to know what I'm doing everywhere.  On one hand, it'd probably be weird--not to mention extremely irrelevant--for my advisor or academic department administrator to see me reading the history of a certain morally-questionable meme involving the onomatopoeia allegedly created by a little girl makes when she falls on a bed.  And on the other hand, few people on IJBM or TV Tropes--if anyone at all--really care to know if I'm estimating the number of tons of carbon dioxide that can be sequestered by a reforestation program in Brazil.


The times I use Twitter are when I want to keep abreast of developments in rapidly-developing events, such as the Arab Spring protests or the Wisconsin labor protests.  I may also want to be a vehicle to help one side by tweeting or retweeting useful information.  Otherwise, I've so far failed to find a use for Twitter in my own life.


If I really want to share something, I find an appropriate audience first--be it my current/former schoolmates, or certain internet communities, or my close friends, or some other subgroup of the people I know--and then I find the best way to share it with them, which usually means something that doesn't involve broadcasting my activities to the world.

Comments

  • Personally, I like the integration. Especially for logging into apps using Facebook, that saves time and reduces frustration. As for the publicization, I usually set the Privacy Level for said apps to just me so it doesn't spam my friends' Walls.

  • The option is convenient, but I don't like when it's mandatory (youtube).

  • Yeah, YouTube is annoying because apparently not all Gmail accounts work for that :/

  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human

    @Firebert: I've considered joining my several GMail accounts for a while, but kept on deciding against it.


    It would be pretty convenient for me since I could log into multiple accounts without logging out of any, in the same browser.


    But I decided I don't want Google to have an easily-linked record between the activities of each account.  First, in case Google's records are compromised, people won't be able to find me through, say, my gaming e-mail.  Second, in case I get sued or stalked, it becomes harder for someone to try to find me through certain activities, and easier for me to quarantine/eject those accounts to protect the integrity of my other accounts.

  • Child of Darkness

    It's almost certain that Google knows the same person is behind all of those accounts, in my view.  They're not dumb, and they want to sell people, not accounts.  Sooner or later enough leaks from a pseudonymous account that it becomes possible to trace who it is.

  • Creature - Florida Dragon Turtle Human

    I'm absolutely certain that it's possible for someone dedicated enough to piece together clues I've left about myself over the years, associated with names other than my real-life name, and figure out who I am in real life.


    Not to mention that Google can simply run an IP check to see what addresses are logging into certain accounts.


    Though that would, on par, probably require more dedicated effort than a stalker or scam artist (or, possibly, even a plaintiff) would be willing to take.


    It also depends on the particular circumstance.  If someone is invading or opposing Google, Google would be on my side, while if someone were suing me, Google probably wouldn't be.

Sign In or Register to comment.