catgofire's dashboard

When I say "private" I also include publicly available info that is not associated with the identity of the individual it's about. For example, if you didn't reveal your identity on your blog, but you did reveal a bunch of non-identifying facts about yourself that were available other places on the web where those facts were associated with your identity, Spock could form the probable conclusion that the two individuals were the same individual. Then Spock could include further facts you reveal about yourself on the anonymous blog on your Spock page. I'm not saying Spock does this, but it's possible and would explain how they got info about me from my myspace page which, as far as I know, has never been associated with my name. Make sense?

This should be a source of concern for Spock, since while California law protects companies like Spock from libel suits when the false info they present is only pulled from elsewhere online, the law doesn't protect them if they compile false info on an individual from some places where that false info is not presented as being about the individual. If they do this, they've gone beyond merely showing what's elsewhere on the web. – LetsSueSpock, on August 05, 2008 00:28

LetsSueSpock: What I'm asking is, how would Spock take information from private sites? They're private -- it's not like Spock has an all-access pass to the Internet. When it crawls the Internet, it's just like you surfing it, but faster. One scenario that could reflect what you're talking about is if a public profile has been recently privatized. Say I had a MySpace profile that was public, and now I make that page private. Spock will have it there until it crawls MySpace again and sees that the profile has become private. There are two actions I can take at this point: if the profile is mine, I can request that it be taken down. If not, I can rest assured that Spock is working hard to refresh its index and take care of the problem. If you have an actual example of what you mentioned that you don't think falls into this scenario, I'd be interested to see it. – catgofire, on August 04, 2008 19:18

Don'tlikespock. If you would like to be removed from Spock please the question thread - Remove me from Spock! With regards to your other comments, as noted above, Spock is a search engine that works similar to Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc in that we crawl and index publish publicly available information. One of the many advantages of Spock is that we enable people to take control of their search result and remove any irrelevant tags, web links, pictures, etc. We are well aware that people don't necessarily display everything about themselves, which is why we enable people to claim their search result. Still, at the end of the day it's really up to a person to be aware of their web presence and what is made available about them (if you don't want information shown than you shouldn't display or post it- or at least make sure it's private) – I Love Spock, on August 04, 2008 17:21

(2nd try. Couldn't tell if first posted. They didn't ask for validation, etc.)

Catgofire, you are a wise-ass. Nobody likes a wise-ass. And unfortunately for you, you are not wise, which just makes you an ass.

Catgofire says:

"If it's not public, how did Spock get it? It's not like Spock broke into your house and stole your information"

How could Spock get info that's not public? By taking it from private sites, you idiot. No one here should be presuming that what Spock is doing is ethical. Here's one way Spock could obtain private info about individuals. They code algorithms that correlate info publicly associated with someone with similar info associated with someone whose identity is private. If the correlation between the two sets of info matches to a sufficiently high degree, they can make a probabilistic assumption that the private someone is the same person as the other public someone. Easy as pie. What do you think they employ all their scientists for?

Catgofire also said:

"... Everything on Spock is from somewhere else (public) on the Internet."

This is of course false, and easy to demonstrate as such. To test whether info on Spock is public, just copy a statistically improbable phrase from the suspected private info on a Spock page and Google it. If Google ONLY shows that phrase on the Spock page you copied it from, then obviously Spock is getting the info from someplace that you, a member of the public, can't get it from. Such info then is clearly not public info.

Somebody needs to file a class-action lawsuit and shut these MFs down. – LetsSueSpock, on August 04, 2008 16:52

and its kind of odd how none of the employees here don't have their birth dates and where exactly they live like the rest of us do. I guess you guys like your privacy too! take me off your website IMMEDIATELY

you have a horrible website you are advertising information that you have no right to! someone should report you to the cops and i think the media should do a story about how horrible you are!

Maria and Sab,

Spock is only cataloging what is already on the web, which you ostensibly have control over.

To remove your public Facebook search listing (and prevent search services like Spock and Google from indexing you), go to http://facebook.com/privacy.php?view=... and uncheck the check box under "My public search listing". You may also want to restrict the option under "Which Facebook users can find me in search?" if you want to prevent random people from searching for you.

Again- if it's not public, how did Spock get it? If you go to your page and click on the blue triangle next to your name, a little "vote" window will pop up. If you click on the "who voted" link in that box, it will tell you who added your name. If the only name there is "spock robot" or something similar, your full name was somewhere on the Internet and it was added automatically (no human interaction). If there's a name there, then that person is who added your name, not Spock. Seriously... Spock cannot acquire private information on its own... it's impossible. Think about it. – catgofire, on April 17, 2008 20:07

Again- it's not always public info. My first & last name managed to get on Spock even though I have NEVER EVER had them publicly available on Myspace, which Spock says was the source. And like I've said before, requiring people to register for Spock in order for them to have their information removed is just stupid. – amesmb, on April 17, 2008 18:32

If it's not public, how did Spock get it? It's not like Spock broke into your house and stole your information... Everything on Spock is from somewhere else (public) on the Internet.

I'm having the same problem. If I had an account that allowed my full name & everything to be public then that's one thing, but the information the Spock is displaying is NOT PUBLIC!!!! I take lots of steps to keep my info private; all of my blog entries are friends only, I don't mention my last name- usually not even my first name- ANYWHERE on the site, etc. Yet Spock thinks nothing of putting it out there without my knowledge. I've jumped through the necessary hoops of having my information removed but it's still there. Any ideas on how long it should take? If it takes too long then I'd like to get on the phone with somebody....

RE: PW's response to JOD – Now *that's* respect for the customer.

J.O.D.,

Justin worked your ass. HAHAHAHA.

J.O.D., since you spend so much time talking about Spock, why don't you interview for a position. Check out: http://www.spock.com/jobs.

You'll need to send it your resume. Wait, Spock probably has your LinkedIn profile.

Haha... I was waiting for you to bring that up.

I am in no way an Official Representative. I don't work for Spock. I'm a college student -- I am planning to work there this summer as an intern. I have never talked to anyone from Spock about this website, or this issue in general. I also have nothing to gain from posting my opinion here, and nothing to lose from not posting it. The views I express in no way represent Spock or its employees.

If you look on my page, you'll see that this is the only topic on GetSatisfaction that I've ever contributed to. It's something that I think a lot of people misunderstand, and something that this thread has caused me to think deeply about. I am choosing to work for Spock in the future because I hold these views, and not the other way around.

If you want to use the fact that I am going to intern for Spock this summer to discredit what I've said above, you're free to do that. But you should know: it doesn't. You said it yourself in your last reply. It's all public.

There's a comment on my blog that I think you'd like (it agrees with you). It raises some interesting points:

http://blog.catgofire.com/2008/2/21/w...

I can't believe you linked to my Spock profile. That's private. ;)

"I don't work for Spock."

http://www.spock.com/Justin-Brown-Mk3...

You should be listed as an Official Representative.
This can't go on any more little buddy.

"...whoever they intend to share my info with" -- They intend to share it with everyone, just as your /public/ profiles are shared with everyone.

"Spock takes public profiles...". Thank you, end of discussion. Seriously.

Spock takes public profiles, aggregates them into a spock profile and then holds it captive until you register to manage it.

i don't have any interest in doing that and I want the option to opt out of Spock, much like what RapLeaf has offered.

the identity management features of Spock don't appeal to me because making my data more accurate only benefits Spock and whoever they intend to share my info with.

guys, I think this could be a logical problem- to REMOVE from Spock anybody. it's possible to close the account, but remove from a Web 2.0 crowler- what does it mean for you? try to think about.

if I ask Google to remove me from Google? all my pages? then from images.google.com all my images- will this work? Google crowls what's available on the PUBLIC web. In a similar way Spock is crowling the Web 2.0 (as well as Web), so if there is something about you on Web 2.0 and it's for PUBLIC use- how it could be "deleted"?

sorry guys, it's the first time you meet a crowler? Naymz makes the same, zoominfo makes this, ppl.com makes it- any Web/ Web 2.0 catalog makes this!

the advantage of Spock is that you may join and vote down any information you don't like to be shown on Spock. so you have CONTROL over your Digital Online Identity. Unlike those 1.0 people search engines that just show you the info and .... there is nobody to ask "close my account".

So guys I think the problem is in your understanding of what the Digital Identity Management is. it's not your problem with Spock.