Already public? Share All of the personal information you haphazardly to social media and dating sites is a treasure to someone, whether it's advertisers, police or programmers. Twitter just asked a big data firm to stop offering its services to law enforcement, but is still making its firehose of tweets searchable for marketers anonymohs advertisers.
But would you be fine with someone using all that data for the purpose of advancing scientific research? Police use plate readers to tracks cars and justify surveillance by saying it's simply a photograph taken in public. But would you be fine with someone using all that data for the purpose of advancing scientific research? Hacks and exposures of giant databases of personal information have become frequent in recent years — with high profile incidents like the Ashley Madison hack or Anonymous' KKK dox — so anonyomus were outraged when they heard about the OkCupid database: But Weingart's warning about our ability to unearth personal information was true about OkCupid even before this leak.
That data can be used for good or evil, and academic research hardly seems like the worst-case scenario. Although it violates OkCupid's terms of serviceit's not some sort of illegal hack.
As we move more of our lives online, it's harder to hide personal information from someone who wants to collect it. As we move more of our lives online, it's harder to hide personal information from someone who wants to collect it. The OkCupid database was collected with a scrapera program that automatically runs through a website to collect all of the data — the algorithmic equivalent of going through the semi-public profiles one by one and jotting down the info.
Although it violates OkCupid's terms of serviceit's not some sort of illegal hack. It's a convenient collection of information that was already available by inconvenient means.
Share All of the personal information you haphazardly to social media and dating sites is a treasure to someone, whether it's advertisers, police or programmers. That data can be used for good or evil, and academic research hardly seems like the worst-case scenario. Already public?
Hacks and exposures of giant databases of personal information have become frequent in recent years — with high profile incidents like the Ashley Madison hack or Anonymous' KKK dox — so some were outraged when they heard about the OkCupid database: But Weingart's warning about our ability to unearth personal information was true about OkCupid even before this leak. The OkCupid database was collected with a scrapera program that automatically runs through a website to collect all of the data — the algorithmic equivalent of going through the semi-public profiles one by one and jotting down the info.
Actual photos themselves, as well as the body text of the profiles, were not collected, though that information could easily be found using an OkCupid once anpnymous target profile was identified. Actual photos themselves, as well as the body text of the profiles, were not collected, though that information could easily be found using an OkCupid once a target profile was identified.
Police use plate anongmous to tracks cars and justify surveillance by saying it's simply a photograph taken in public. It's a convenient collection of information that was already available by inconvenient means. Twitter just asked a big data firm to stop offering its services to law enforcement, but is still making its firehose of tweets searchable for marketers and advertisers.
