Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Privacy ablaze

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I'm pro-privacy but I understand when we need to give out a certain amount of private information to help web-services to help us. An example for this would be the Google services that get better when they track our past search behavior. Of course, not everyone treats their personal information this way and it's evident from the number of phone numbers and email addresses people leave on their Orkut, Facebook and LinkedIn profiles. Leaving your email address out in the open will mostly get you some spam, here's some help on dealing with those promising offers you'll get.

Two days ago, TechCrunch posted this article on a new breed of start-ups geared to help you store your life's story. Problem is, would you really want to have your life story (including genealogy, family and friends details, and pictures) available for everyone to see? Granted, your personal data can be protected by the service provider and you will have control over who visits your pages. But if the recent Monster Scam is anything to go by, no service provider can guarantee 100% safety of your personal data that they hold.

So my question to you, now is this - Do you feel comfortable with having your life's information stored on a server? Also, can start-ups in this arena do something to assuage your (possible) pain?

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