billycovington's dashboard

billycovington started following the question "No prefixes to twitter posts please!" in Tumblr.

billycovington replied on August 25, 2009 17:14 to the question "How the !@#$ do I get off of your god awful website?" in Spock:

The point is, you shouldn't have to fill out a goddamned FORM to have your information removed. A person's personal information shouldn't be anywhere except where a person has explicitly given permission for it to be.

billycovington replied on August 25, 2009 02:08 to the question "How the !@#$ do I get off of your god awful website?" in Spock:

Hey William,
I had a similar experience, and agree whole-heartedly, that this Spock website is a sham and is criminal.

It's the equivalent of you having your paper on the school bulletin board, then choosing to take it down, and the school bully runs by grabs it from your hands, playing keep-away with it above your head, and reading it to the world. The only way for you to get your information back, is to do whatever the bully says to do.

If they had any sense at all, they would know that making a buck in the short term, in this way, will prevent them from making any money in the future. These short-sighted people may make millions from your information, but they're dumb enough that they'll probably just buy jet-skis and ferraris and waste it all away, ending up with nothing in the long run.

If they were smart, they would allow people to 1) opt-in to having their information on the site, and 2) make it easy for people to permanently remove their information.

A comment on the question "List of blocked users" in Twitter:

Yeah, that doesn't work so much anymore. There is no privacy link. – billycovington, on June 07, 2009 20:31

A comment on the question "List of blocked users" in Twitter:

I agree, there is no Privacy link. – billycovington, on June 07, 2009 20:30

billycovington started following the question "How the !@#$ do I get off of your god awful website?" in Spock.

billycovington started following the question "No longer have a Friendster account but I'm still on your site!" in Spock.

billycovington started following the problem "Get my private info off your site NOW!" in Spock.

billycovington marked one of John O'Day's replies in Spock as useful. John O'Day replied to the problem "I hate data harvesting, and I refuse to use your service.".

billycovington marked one of John O'Day's replies in Spock as useful. John O'Day replied to the problem "I hate data harvesting, and I refuse to use your service.".

shona's reply to "I hate data harvesting, and I refuse to use your service." was just promoted to the most useful! billycovington and 2 other people think it's one of the best replies.

I may be that friend!

And on that note, does the site Rapleaf fall under data harvesting? I Google'd myself a week or two ago (yes narcissism-o) and found a listing with my name. The 'service' maintains my 'Rapleaf Reputation,' lists my hometown and provides a link to every social network I've participated in, not to mention my friggin Amazon wishlist!

I find this insanely intrusive. For me to 'manage' this information, I have to register on their site. WTF! How does this not break some kind of privacy act?

Though I suppose I should have never signed up for any social network in the first place. I deleted my Yelp and I uncomfortably stare at my 'Delete Profile?!' button on Myspace for hours on end.

When my four year old cousin can basically make a rapid fire assessment of my life within seconds, I cringe.

A comment on the question "How do I delete my account and remove my search result?" in Spock:

Hi Love,
Why haven't people learned that Opt-In is the best course of business rather than Opt-Out??? Even if someday you DO learn this and modify your business model, you've already soured a LOT of people on your service. We do not trust you now, and it's going to take a LOT to change our minds. – billycovington, on June 13, 2008 19:03

billycovington replied on June 13, 2008 18:31 to the question "How do I delete my account and remove my search result?" in Spock:

Oh yeah, I am also EXTREMELY ANGRY.

billycovington replied on June 13, 2008 18:14 to the question "How do I delete my account and remove my search result?" in Spock:

I do not see where to "flag" the search results. WHY is my old Myspace and Facebook information on this site when I deleted those accounts MONTHS ago???? THIS SERVICE IS A VIOLATION OF PRIVACY AND IS UTTERLY DISGRACEFUL.

billycovington started following the question "How do I delete my account and remove my search result?" in Spock.

billycovington started following the problem "I cant reactivate my account" in Twitter.