catgofire's dashboard

Ok guys, I have a little story/metaphor for you. It's about "the Internet".

Sab, Maria, J.O.D., Charles--

You are in a mall. It's a very crowded mall. There are lots of people milling around. You are wearing a name tag. You chose what to put on your name tag. My name tag reads "catgofire". Your name tag might also include other information, such as your real name, your age, or what TV shows you like to watch. Anything, really. Sometimes my name tag reads "Justin Brown, male, 20, likes House and The Office, lives in Pittsburgh PA".

This mall has a lot of stores. You can change your name tag when you enter each store, but most people choose to just keep their name tag the same in all stores-- it's easier that way. All guests who enter the store are required to sign a guestbook. They can sign it however they'd like, and it's usually just with the information that's on their name tag.

Remember that through all of this, you are free to decide what to do. You don't even have to enter the mall if you don't want to. You can change your name tag as often as you like, and you can also put completely false information on your name tag. It's your choice to enter stores, but most stores have the policy that once you've signed their guestbook, you cannot easily remove your entry. So keep this in mind when entering stores.

This mall is not only for shopping and entertainment... it's become a social sensation where people like to just hang out with their friends and meet new people. But there are so many people in the mall, it's really hard sometimes to find who you're looking for. Enter Spock. Spock is this really smart guy who has gone around and read all the guestbooks and memorized their information. He knows this won't be a problem because the people who signed the guestbook /chose/ to do so with information they /chose/ to share. I tell Spock that I'm looking for my classmates from "Grayslake high school". *Poof*! Spock shows me where they are, and maybe even their pictures if they /chose/ to leave one in a guestbook. I thank Spock, because I wouldn't have found these people otherwise.

But now I hear a ruckus and I look over to see people trying to start a fight with Spock! "What has Spock done?" I think to myself, "Has he broken into someone's home and stolen their information? Has he taken something from someone without their consent and put it on display?" Spock sees me watching and knows what I'm thinking. "That's impossible!" Spock yells. "I can't leave this mall! I can't even read name tags! All I can do is read guestbooks!" "Strange," I think, "These people are mad at Spock for reading their guestbook entry? The entry they wrote themselves, with full knowledge that it was a guestbook and not a diary? What's wrong here?"

I think what's wrong is that some guestbooks give the illusion of being a diary. Not all guestbooks have big warnings that say "This is public information! Do not write anything here that you don't want everyone to know!" And maybe they should. But Spock has no way of discerning that. He just reads their content.

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.