<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/good-idea-chap-your-personal-data-is-in-safe-hands-not/ >>
Pray, do have a look at the following link:
I mean, wow. I would have never thought that my online presence was estimated at the mind- boggling amount of $ 41.60.
I can now realistically consider selling myself off to buy that red- striped double- cuff shirt I saw in TM Lewin the other day.
I am, naturally, pulling your leg; both of your legs, in fact. I wouldn’t do that because I wouldn’t have the money to get the right tie for it. But then again, I might have to ask a friend to sell himself off to get the tie.
On a more serious note, however, the above website is truly worrying for several reasons.
First and foremost, it has, as you can see above, EVERYTHING on me. I know full well that I have uploaded my CV on various platforms and have put up most of my information on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
However, I don’t believe I’ve allowed ANY of those to share my information with any third parties.
As you might probably imagine, of course, they are not simply SHARING it, they are SELLING it; they are making a profit from SELLING OFF my personal data to other websites.
Yet, that seems to be viewed by many as perfectly fine as I have, most probably, whilst registering for the above websites, ticked off a box to say that I agree for my personal data to be shared with third parties.
Now, I don’t want to go into legalese and technicalities but the above is wrong on soooo many levels; almost as many, in fact, as those in the old- school Super Mario games.
For one, under the Data Protection Act 1998, such websites cannot forward your personal information onto other mediums on a willy- nilly basis.
Here, have a look:
Leaving the above aside, it is also a fact that most of the information on that the above AccountTraders website has on me is public; that is to say, everyone can get a hold of it by typing my name into Google.
On the other hand, I don’t remember giving anyone my implied, let alone express permission, to make money out of my personal information (be it in the public domain or not).
I have, naturally, emailed the administrators of the above website and have kindly requested that my personal information be taken off.
Further, I have requested an explanation of where they have got the said information from.
As you might probably imagine, what I got back in terms of a reply was a big fat nothing.
In the light of the above, then, one might well be justified in asking whether his personal information (including his private mobile number AND residential address, see << http://www.192.com/ >> ….) are at all kept private and safe.
The obvious, and rather disturbingly simple, answer to that is
NO.
The more important question is what, if anything, can we do about it?
Do share your thoughts; and if you don’t you can be certain that someone else will.
For a fee, of course.
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