What's Valuable to Me.

What’s valuable to me? Right under my wife and my son, my privacy is important. I love my privacy. Rather hypocritical coming from a blogger right? But the fact of the matter is that I don’t like to give out too much info about myself. Okay you might find me on LinkedIn but I don’t like Facebook, and you won’t find me there. Despite using services from Google you won’t find me through the Google plus. Mark Zuckerberg might have this vision of having everyone united and connected through social networks, preferably through Facebook. If you ask me it seems that the more we connect and share with others on Facebook, or through other social networks we become more the Borg from the Star Trek series, and I’m definitely against that notion that we become connected like the Borg. I prefer to be individualistic, and allow for the creativity of the individual which can trump the collective mindset any time. The more we share the more we connect with others through the internet and social networks the more we tell companies about ourselves. I can have a conversation with a few people and know that what I just told them won’t will stay with them, if I had the same conversation online then companies can take what I said to try, and use it to sell to me or whoever else was in on the conversation, some product or service. Which is great for selling me product that I didn't even know I wanted or needed, but at the same time by having that conversation online I gave up my right to privacy because what said is now part of a data pool that is analysed and parsed for meaning and substance beyond the intended result. Thus the value of my privacy. If I value it, then I must safeguard it, right? The first rule here is limit what you say or do online. Another good rule use the tools available to surf online anonymously. There’s a whole host of tools that a person can use. The next rule is to never post a blog. I am in clear violation of my own rule here since I love sharing my thoughts with the world! Another good rule of thumb if a person values their privacy remain reclusive to the rest of the world. Do we need that set top tv box that we place our calendars and a list of our daily activities in? When use such services we are giving service providers and even Governments more information about our selves, so that they can either sell us adds or can monitor our activities. So in a nutshell if a person wants to protect their privacy they should limit their activities online. It’s almost like being a groundhog popping out of his hole only to duck back in it for safety. One last point about staying off line is that by doing so enables a person to stay off everyone’s radar. How can you be found if you don’t do anything online that might identify who you are, and what you do?

Eric........................