There have been a couple of times when gathered around the kitchen table, a close relative would give their new phone number out to another relative and I'd take the liberty of entering their number into my own phone as well, albeit without explicitly asking permission or indicating that I was doing so. No harm done, and by the end of the visit we'd all most likely have shared our numbers anyway, but still... there was just something about the undertaking that felt a little... creepy. It makes you feel a little like you're eavesdropping or that you're some kind of personal-data peeping tom. Well, karma showed up today and kicked me right in the crotch.
This morning I finally gave in to Google's pestering pleas and set up my Google+ page. I say 'my' instead of 'a' because some time ago, Google took it upon itself to essentially create a Google+ social network account page for anyone already using one of its other services. That in and of itself has a creepy feel to it (along with an odor of desperation) but it gets worse.
Under the 'add friends' section of Google+ to view all suggested friends, it already had the names and email addresses of everyone in my phone's address book. If I had an Android phone, I'd probably think nothing of it, but I don't. I have an iPhone. And although I do have a gmail account that I rarely use, I have never (to my knowledge) given Gmail permission to trawl my phone's address book. The only explanation that I can think of is, at some point, perhaps I inadvertently gave my iPhone's Google Voice app permission to do so.
Which brings me to the frightening part of technology. Nearly every single phone number and email address in my phone was painstakingly entered there manually and yet, within the blink of an eye, it was able to wind up on a third party's server somewhere exposed to God knows who, without me having any memory of having given permission.
Now stop and think about all of the data you share on social networks - be it Google+, Facebook, Twitter or something else. You might have your account's privacy settings in perfect order... but have your friends taken the time to lock down their stuff? How do these networks function? Is it a case of 'a chain is only as strong as its weakest link'? Is it possible that the wide world has unfettered access to your contact info, photos, rants, etc., via the unlocked backdoor of your mother's Facebook account? I don't know the answer but I'd wager that those who do are in no hurry to reveal it.
This brings to mind a proposal I once read in which the author argued that all of this effort we put into safeguarding our privacy is a waste of time and money. He proposed that instead, we come up with a vast system in which there is absolutely zero privacy for anyone anywhere anytime regarding any subject. Under his theoretical system there would be no need to encrypt your online purchase details to protect your credit card number because, to access your transaction or info under his system, it would be theoretically impossible for the culprit to hide his/her own identity. It's an interesting idea but as the old saying goes, "there's many a slip twixt the cup and the lip".
