Tag Archives: public privacy

Panoramio: To boldly go where no Google car has gone before

Posted on Monday, 4. September 2023 by hmvh

Panoramio was a geo-located tagging photo sharing site whose goal was to allow Google Earth users to learn more about a given area by viewing the photos that other users had taken at that location. It was sometime around 2008 that I signed up, and Panoramio soon became my new home for (retroactively) geotagged digital photos of mostly Johannesburg (my previous geographic home) as well as any other places we visited. Continue reading →

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On Facebook, BBSes and Big Data

Posted on Monday, 27. June 2016 by hmvh

Facebook is the unchallenged 800-pound gorilla in the social media arena. It is a people-data aggregator like no other. After discovering a cache of old BBS registration form printouts I decided to hunt down those ex-members, armed with names and answers they gave some 20 years ago. Continue reading →

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Takedown: Three strikes

Posted on Wednesday, 18. December 2013 by hmvh

Anyone who runs a blog stands to fall foul of some form of “censorship”. Anyone who operates a website that covers recent history may easily tread on the toes of the living whose names may be mentioned in old documents. This has now happened three times. Continue reading →

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On Moshzilla, privacy, and responsibility

Posted on Tuesday, 23. September 2008 by hmvh

The article focused largely on the false sense of security and indeed the anonymity that internet users (children, specifically) think relieves them from having to assume any form of social responsibility and respect for others in the real world. Hasn’t Mom taught you not to accept candy from strangers? How much does Google know about us? Why does Google know so much about us? Consider also that Google is but one of many search engines out there. Continue reading →

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