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Looking For Love; Finding Privacy Violations
itwbennett writes "When you sign up for online dating, there's a certain amount of information you expect to give up, like whether or not your weight is proportional to your height. But you probably don't expect that your profile will remain online long after you stop subscribing to the service. In some cases your photo can be found even after being deleted from the index, according to the electronic frontier foundation (EFF), which identified six major security weaknesses in online dating sites."
In a lot of systems, deleted simply means marked as deleted. What the system does with that information is another matter. Even in a file system, when a file is deleted, it is many times recoverable if it hasn't been overwritten with other data.
"Deleted from the index" does not mean the file was deleted. If I rip the table of contents and index out of a book you could still find each page by flipping through them.
ANYTHING you give up to a website is there for the duration of time. I just figure it will never go away.
Even if you run your own site, don't fool yourself that you can take down the information and it's gone. There are folks that archive web content and sell the historical data for profit. If you are expecting that Facebook or Twitter content can be deleted and it will be gone forever, you are a fool.
I'm always amazed at the number of folks who simply don't understand this, and think that they can delete their Facebook posts and they are gone. So I'm not suprised that data on dating sites might stick around after you are gone.
Don't think I'm right? Check this out: http://www.archive.org/web/web.php
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I have several honeypot email accounts, and one kept getting emails that suggested it was somehow a member of a French on-line dating/introduction service.
The web site had no way to delete one's account, nor did the proprietors respond to emails.
My solution? I logged in and updated "my" personal information. I got nasty, every bit of the sickest crap I could think of.
They pulled my account within the hour. :-)
...laura
It's not very often friendless people get to act smug.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Or, better yet. Date online, as the Internet is a GREAT tool for bringing people together. Just don't go trying to take shortcuts like dating sites. Actually MEET people via sites discussing your interests (you know, outside of genitalia). Dating sites are a hotbed for spammers, desperate folk, and other bad news. Hobby/other Interest based networking sites are much more promising for creating a healthy and valuable relationship in the future. Meetup.com comes to mind, though I'm sure there are great less mainstream/corporate options to go with as well, that may be less inclined to treat you like data to be mined and sold. Even better would be the BBS's of the past (due to their local nature), but I'm afraid in most cases you'll be needing a time machine to go with this option... The big benefit of this method, outside of being less sketchy than online dating sites, is also that even if you don't succeed in finding a partner, you're at least still likely to make some worthwhile friends in the process (might be more valuable to some than others...but I tend to figure most people who use online dating are probably fairly lonely to begin with).
And obviously, use some goddamn common sense. Strangers are strangers, and hopefully y'all got that lesson back in Kindergarten.
Why do you always assume somebody that refuses to be on Facebook has no friends? It's a curious bit of fallacious logic that I encounter quite often.
I feel the same way the AC does. Most people *are* foolish to give up so much privacy for whatever you think Facebook is delivering.
Personally, I find Facebook to not only be dangerous to me for factual reasons based on logic regarding privacy, anonymity, game theory, etc. but incredibly shallow and just plain old bullshit.
I don't need to tweet shit, or put stuff up on Facebook, or see any of your shit either.
Call it a personal preference, but I prefer my relationships to have a little more "real life" in them. Meeting at tea and coffee shops, having a meal, you know, actually doing real things. Talking with my friends.
Facebook and Twitter (especially Twitter) just lack the depth that I find rewarding in personal relationships.
I am not a phone guy. Hate to be on it for more than a few minutes. Refuse to txt message. My communications are literally limited to email, phone conversations and physically talking. I like it that way.
and..... I have plenty of friends and I am considered to be quite nice and approachable.