<p>While I am no PC expert, I am not a novice either. But am puzzled and royally annoyed at what seems to be snooping by advertisers or whomever.</p>
<p>I opened an email from LinkedIn, asking me to join. I am no fan of most social media. I guess that LinkedIn got my name from a friend who is a member. No problem so far. But also included in the message were profiles of people whom I have only very slight connections to; the ex-wife a cousin and a high school classmate whom I have neither seen nor spoken to in the three decades since graduation day.</p>
<p>What’s going on here? I have never joined a social media website. If one person shares your email address with LinkedIn et al, does that give the website license search your life? Did I neglect to delete some windows cookies? I have my security software on “Do Not Track,” yet and still somehow I got an email from LinkedIn that really is much too close for comfort, as far as I am concerned. How to I stop this?</p>
<p>I think it is very hard to stop. LinkedIn - their entire business model is based on finding and making connections for people, so I guess they are pretty good at it. </p>
<p>Thanks for the link, NJres. That story just increases my DIScomfort level. I tend to agree that there’s probably little we can do about it other than to drop off “the grid” completely like the character John Connor in ‘Terminator: Judgment Day.’ And we all know that’s probably not practical.</p>
<p>I think Linkedin gets that info from what the person who invited you chose to share. When people first sign up for these social media sites, they are given the option of importing all their email contacts automatically — so basically if you have 10 friends who are on LinkedIn and 6 of them opted to share their contact lists with the system when they logged in, the Linked in has the data from those 6 and a computer algorithm that can easily create a rough map of the networks by noting commonalities. </p>
<p>That’s why you are seeing people with only slight, distant connections. If the system could access your information with an invitation, then you’d see people who were closer to you. Instead you get the ex-wife (she signed on, shared her email contact list, and you’re still in it) – the cousin (who shared his email contact list, and you were on it from that time a few years when your parents sent out invitations to the whole extended family for their anniversary party, with everyone’s email listed in the cc field.) – and that high school classmate who hasn’t spoken to you, but corresponds regularly with someone who has – and who also happens to be on LinkedIn. </p>
<p>Plus LinkedIn is also looking at the connections of the people who signed up. Maybe that high school classmate never, ever shared an email list, but happens to be Linked In connection for both the cousin and the ex-wife. </p>
<p>LinkedIn is not snooping on you, and your friend did not give them information other than you email address I am pretty sure. Think about all the sites that have asked you to provide an email address (including this one). Now think about the other information that they asked you for. This almost always includes information about where you live, and if you created accounts to make on-line purchases, information about your purchases. The amount of data a company can get once they have your email address is massive. The people they are getting this data from are web sites (like this one I would guess - they certainly are not making enough on the ads alone to keep it going) who sell it to for a profit to organizations who turn around and sell it companies to help them with their marketing efforts.</p>
<p>Yes. I believe it’s snooping All I did is look at some dresses that someone was describing on Nordstrom’s. and I get pop ups all of the time now. The same with some other sites. “They” know what sites I visit and track me back. Pretty danged clear. And that’s without setting up an account or giving any info, just clicking on a site. There are "cookies’ or whatever that capture your location and know when you’ve looked at anything and can track you back and contact you through ads, anyways.</p>
<p>I actually go to Nordstorm’s or Saks sites first to populate my cookies, so when CC turns to discussing pest control, I would still see pretty shoes instead of hordes of roaches running through my screen. And after the OKCupid story, I would not use Firefox, so please no suggestions. </p>
<p>Oh, he resigned? Awesome. I meant the story that preceded the resignation. BTW, he did not say that he was pro-gay rights in the CNBC story that I read. </p>
<p>Can’t edit my previous post, but I’m truly skeptical that his resignation was his own decision. I’ve been around corporate world long enough to know how this stuff happens.</p>
<p>What also proceeded the Mozilla resignation was that 3 board members - half - resigned the day he was appointed. Mozilla says coincidence but it certainly looks like he was a divisive candidate from the start. Stories are that 2 of the 3 who resigned wanted someone else. If he had the full support of the board, it might be different.</p>
<p>As for snooping, you should realize it’s a lost cause. I try to make this clear to people. If someone wants to spend the money, they can construct pretty much everything about you. And it will only get worse. I try to explain this to some of my gun nut friends who think a registry is the first step toward confiscation: they can construct one now from the data that’s out there now.</p>
<p>BTW, I never use a debit card because you can not trust any corporate security systems. Period. I recommend reading Brian Krebs on security issues - can’t link because it may qualify as a private blog. </p>
<p>One of my favorite new breaches involves penetrating the ATM security software - probably by infiltrating bank employee computers - and then reprogramming certain ATMs to dispense all their cash without limit. The FBI says a rough handful of debit cards managed to pull $40M out of ATM’s in a short period. </p>
<p>Google has always scanned your email to collect information for advertising. Microsoft recently admitted they actually went in and searched email when they found a security breach. And my favorite is that if you read reviews about how great x app is at recommending stuff … that’s because it takes your contacts, your friends, your personal information and shares bits and pieces of that with others as it takes stuff from others and pushes it to you. The idea is the more you give up the more you get … but think about that. </p>
<p>Gawd, you all are scaring me! But like Lergnom said, it’s probably too late.</p>
<p>Regarding Mozilla, yes it clearly seems like the controversy is the reason for the resignation. The statement I read from him was surprisingly candid; “I can’t be an effective leader,” or some such. Did he say anything else about his financial support of Prop 8, such as regrets?</p>
<p>It’s called data mining - something which is unavoidable. However, those are professional companies - they can not do anything worse then show you useless advertisements. </p>
<p>@Lergnorm I believe the $40M in a short period of time you are talking about was actually a compromise of a VISA Gift Card database. They obtained the numbers of gift cards that were not yet sold/activated, eliminated the limits, created cards to match the information on the mag strip and then went to ATMs all over the place (mainly in New York City) and withdrew money. Multiple people were involved in the actual money withdrawals and the money was stolen from the banks essentially, not from individual accounts. </p>
<p>LinkedIn uses a variety of ways, but some of it is from people who linked Gmail or other email accounts to it, some of it is based on what is in your profile- places you’ve worked, colleges you went to, etc. Some of it is based on who have made connections with- if you’ve connected with two people and they have a mutual connection, then that mutual connection will show up as someone you may know. Ultimately, social media is dependent on these linkages. The whole point of LinkedIn is finding your connections, networking with them and vouching for their skills. </p>
<p>I go back and forth with my comfort level with the targeted advertising. On one hand, the whole reason web pages are free is because they are paid for through advertising (like on CC). On the other hand, it’s freaky when I look at a product and all of a sudden, ads for it on every social media site where I hang out. Privacy laws are much more strict in Europe- especially in Germany and they are not allowed to track as much information as they are allowed to track here. </p>