Spokeo Creeps Me Out.
Whoa!
I've been researching social media networks for an internet bootstrap, and today I came across the creepiest site I could ever imagine: Spokeo. Maybe they should just call it "Spookeo."
Want to know what this gem of a site does? Give it a whirl and you'll see how nothing you do is sacred anymore. After entering my email address, a list of my friends' email addresses whirred down my screen. Along came a detailed list of their personal web surfing activities. Not necessarily everything... just juicy tidbits aggregated from sites where they forgot to edit their privacy settings. Yikes. Note to self.
No. I did not need to know that my very private doctor friend ordered a clingy, see-through lingerie top. (I saw the picture). I also did not need access to the reading list of my sexy, albeit high-ranking military buddy who is apparently considering exploring the joys of Pilates (thanks Amazon). Not to mention the former boss who has a thing for the Temptations and apparently Jim Beam. Thank god my ex-boyfriend believes in protecting his online identity because frankly, I don't need to know how many times in an average week he logs onto adultfriendfinder, or which porn sites are picking up the slack.
Today for me was what they call in the world of journalism a "chilling effect."
Hurriedly and with sweaty palms, I looked through my own internet activities... and was relieved to find that the most revealing information was my recent admission on twitter that I'd had more than a small amount of Blue Moon at a midweek get-together, as well as my penchant for questionable cable entertainment featuring a Miami serial killer, a suburban female drug dealer, and a West Coast sex addict. Although I have to admit I was seriously worried about all my late-night googling on nudist resorts and dungeon gear. (Can't a girl be curious?) But seriously. How's it going to look if my grandmother runs across that? Not that my grandmother would know a google search from a garage sale. But I'm not liking the visual.
Sadly, we're not only stuck with Spokeo, we're about to get more and more invaded by aggregators just like it. During my early days of CBS Big Brother addiction... give me a break I was in my 20s... (oh alright, 30s) I fleetingly thought it would be cool to battle wits with 13 other morons in front of a 24/7 camera. But I couldn't quite handle the thought of some producer having all the control... portraying me as a delusional banshee or a weepy holy roller at their own personal, ratings-driven, whim. It really bothered me that anything I said could and would be used (and spliced) against me. Well guess what. Thanks to Spokeo, we're all going to have our own 15 minutes of mashed-up, out-of-context, our-own-fault fame. Unwittingly.
And for a lot of us, probably painfully.
I've been researching social media networks for an internet bootstrap, and today I came across the creepiest site I could ever imagine: Spokeo. Maybe they should just call it "Spookeo."
Want to know what this gem of a site does? Give it a whirl and you'll see how nothing you do is sacred anymore. After entering my email address, a list of my friends' email addresses whirred down my screen. Along came a detailed list of their personal web surfing activities. Not necessarily everything... just juicy tidbits aggregated from sites where they forgot to edit their privacy settings. Yikes. Note to self.
No. I did not need to know that my very private doctor friend ordered a clingy, see-through lingerie top. (I saw the picture). I also did not need access to the reading list of my sexy, albeit high-ranking military buddy who is apparently considering exploring the joys of Pilates (thanks Amazon). Not to mention the former boss who has a thing for the Temptations and apparently Jim Beam. Thank god my ex-boyfriend believes in protecting his online identity because frankly, I don't need to know how many times in an average week he logs onto adultfriendfinder, or which porn sites are picking up the slack.
Today for me was what they call in the world of journalism a "chilling effect."
Hurriedly and with sweaty palms, I looked through my own internet activities... and was relieved to find that the most revealing information was my recent admission on twitter that I'd had more than a small amount of Blue Moon at a midweek get-together, as well as my penchant for questionable cable entertainment featuring a Miami serial killer, a suburban female drug dealer, and a West Coast sex addict. Although I have to admit I was seriously worried about all my late-night googling on nudist resorts and dungeon gear. (Can't a girl be curious?) But seriously. How's it going to look if my grandmother runs across that? Not that my grandmother would know a google search from a garage sale. But I'm not liking the visual.
Sadly, we're not only stuck with Spokeo, we're about to get more and more invaded by aggregators just like it. During my early days of CBS Big Brother addiction... give me a break I was in my 20s... (oh alright, 30s) I fleetingly thought it would be cool to battle wits with 13 other morons in front of a 24/7 camera. But I couldn't quite handle the thought of some producer having all the control... portraying me as a delusional banshee or a weepy holy roller at their own personal, ratings-driven, whim. It really bothered me that anything I said could and would be used (and spliced) against me. Well guess what. Thanks to Spokeo, we're all going to have our own 15 minutes of mashed-up, out-of-context, our-own-fault fame. Unwittingly.
And for a lot of us, probably painfully.
Labels: aggregators, internet privacy, social media, Spokeo
posted by Michelle Tripp at
2:06 PM
3 Comments
