Is it possible to opt out of social networking?

Re:Is it possible to opt out of social networking? by GavinB on Sunday February 07, 2010 @05:01PM (#1108355)

We're moving from an information-poor world to an information-rich one. There is really no way to stop the loss of privacy. The draconian legislation required would, themselves, create a tremendous loss of privacy.

We've moved from file sharing "piracy" to personal information "piracy." And, ultimately, neither is preventable.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is it possible to opt out of social networking? by moe on Sunday February 07, 2010 @06:26PM (#1108473)

We've moved from file sharing "piracy" to personal information "piracy." And, ultimately, neither is preventable.

Sounds catchy but makes no sense at all. The two are not even related.

Also "personal information piracy" is a strange description of people giving out their information voluntarily. This can be trivially prevented by simply not typing that information into a website...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Is it possible to opt out of social networking? by GavinB on Sunday February 07, 2010 @08:17PM (#1108637)

Piracy can be "trivally prevented" by not publishing content. The similarity is that once it's out there in any form, you lose control over it. The two are most definitely related.

The whole point of the article was that it's not you giving the information out. Once it's out in the world, via your friends knowing it, you can't choose whether or not it gets entered. Tiny bits of periphery evidence end up being a lot of information about you.

They're sharing something of yours without your consent. That's what the term "piracy" is supposed to mean.

[ Parent | on HN ]