Some people think the internet is a safe place to hang out. They forget that way back when, in the early days of the telephone, people had party lines. If somebody received a call, there was a good chance that one or more of the neighbors that shared the line would be listening in. You simply did not share the intimate details of your life over the phone.
Private lines, and privacy laws, sort of changed that. People, especially in the US of A, grew accustomed to the idea that without a court order, people other could not listen in to your phone conversation.
What people do not realize about the internet is that it is not a private place. There is a good chance that every email you have ever sent is in storage on somebody's hard drive, somewhere. Not too long ago, I retrieved a long lost blurb that I sent out when my email address was still a freenet address. Internet packets bounce from node to node, server to server, until they are delivered. At each node, there is the possibility that the mail can be read. Even encrypted mail can be read with the right cracker working on it.
There are also web crawlers -- spyware programs -- that live on the net, picking up and tracking down keywords which are then sold to advertisers who can target people that mention items in email or in blogs.
Yesterday I posted about my buying "new rechargeable batteries for the camera". My blog also references, occasionally, real estate topics. This morning my spamblocker at Earthlink caught this one :
- SpamSummarySuspectMessage
- Date="03/29/2008"
- Sender="Robert Gibbs" "rgarrison@intouchhometours.com"
- Subject="Things to consider when buying a new camera for Real Estate photos"
- UID="1jFC3F6qs3Nl34e1"
Of course, the sender name is bogus. If you do a whois :
Whois has started ...
"Whois Server Version 2.0
Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information.
No match for "RGARRISON@INTOUCHHOMETOURS.COM".
Last update of whois database: Sat, 29 Mar 2008 15:13:38 UTC"
and a traceroute gives :
"Traceroute has started ...
traceroute: Warning: rgarrison@intouchhometours.com has multiple addresses; using 209.86.66.90 traceroute to rgarrison@intouchhometours.com (209.86.66.90), 64 hops max, 40 byte packets
1 192.168.0.1 (192.168.0.1) 2.046 ms 0.484 ms 0.478 ms
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(I stopped at this point; it made no sense to keep hunting.)
It isn't really just a coincidence. I have had people from half-way around the world post comments about something that I have written. The web crawlers parsed my post, fed it into the syndicated feeds, and, behold -- someone I never met, or possibly never intended to have read my stuff, gets a copy and responds.
When people post family pictures on the internet, they are posting for the whole world to see. When they talk about family secrets, those items are then public information. If you want to tell someone something, and don't want anyone else listening in on the world wide party line, write them a letter and hand deliver it. Once they have read it, burn it and grind up the ashes. And do it where the EPA can't see you.
BTW -- I intend to turn on as many electrical devices as I can today. In your face, Earth worshippers!!
After a Decade
6 years ago
Re. your last comment: I've got you beat.
ReplyDeleteI ran three loads of laundry (washer & dryer), simmered a pot of soup for over two hours, drove over 10 miles by myself in a circuitous route and used 1.5 gallons of gas mowing my back yard and cutting down SAPLINGS. I think I can single handedly claim to have done more than my part to wound "mother earth" in one day. Of course, I refer to it as housekeeping and cleaning up the yard.
I got you both! While I was busy running a circular saw and grossly oversized compressor, my wife was doing laundry, cooking dinner on an electric stove, 2 t.v.s were running nonstop and both of our computers were running. We then proceeded to use our SUV to run to Lowes where we purchased lawn items that will destroy precious grass areas for less efficient limited use plants. The only thing I am grappling with is how to calculate the dogs carbon offsets that she deposited in the back yard. So far I have attempted to control for this by wrapping them in plastic to send to a land fill.
ReplyDeleteYou have way 2 much time on your hands if you know this stuff.
ReplyDeleteHey have you ever thought of getting a job working for Blog spot? I hear they have an opening; they’re looking for a Product manager. lol