Augmented Reality and Privacy

An anonymous reader recommends a piece up at Augmented Planet that makes a couple of points about privacy in the realm of geotagging and augmented reality that haven't been discussed much. First, once you geotag and upload, say, a photo to the Net you can lose ownership over the data and especially its metadata. Second, data on the Net is long-lived and might be put together in ways you wouldn't like, long after it was created. "If you geotag a picture with your new 50" plasma TV in the background and upload it to the Web, congratulations you have just told everyone where you live and what you have of value. The web has a long memory — geotag something today and in six months it is still on the Web. When you tweet from the beach in Barbados telling your friends you are away for 2 weeks, that picture of your 50" plasma will still be out there along with its location. It's easy to track down someone's home address if you have their real name." The submitter adds, "I never really cared about my online privacy too much. This article made me think seriously about privacy for the first time. No mean feat."

Comments

but it's cool and hip

[alen]

to always broadcast your location and everything about me to everyone on the internet? we are all friends, right? everyone on the internets cares about what i do everyday, right?

Re:but it's cool and hip

[Mikkeles]

Look, Elvis is really, really, REALLY dead; live with it!

We're from the internet

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

And we know what you did last summer...

Re:We're from the internet

[Anonymous Coward]

And we know who you did last summer...

There, fixed that for you.

New business opportunity

[Toy G]

A search engine for burglars!

Quick, let's file a patent...

Re:Avatar

[Anonymous Coward]

I haven't used my real name anywhere on the Internet in about ten years.

It seems that you have been living two lives. In one life, you are Warren Oates, program writer for a respectable software company.

The other life is lived in computers where you go by the hacker alias Neo, and are guilty of virtually every computer crime we have a law for, including the unauthorized use of the D.M.V. system for the removal of automobile boots.

Re:No, it's called "Cautious."

[MrNaz]

If the only harm caused by others to yourself that you can see arises from software security flaws, then you really, really need to get out more.

Actually, check that; if you really are that clueless as to how others can cause you harm, you're better off holed up wherever you are.

In six months...

[SharpFang]

"If you geotag a picture with your new 50" plasma TV in the background and upload it to the Web, congratulations you have just told everyone where you live and what you have of value. The web has a long memory -- geotag something today and in six months" nobody will care about your antiquated plasma TV.

Re:I had TWO attemped burglaries in my life

[severoon]

I've been robbed two times by clowns. If I come home to find grease paint smeared on my door handle and unicycle tracks all over my hardwood floors, I swear I'm gonna do something drastic!