With All the Sharing, You Dont Have a Ghost of a Chance

Ditto -- Sam Wheat, Ghost, Paramount, 1990

The Internet the network of networks was formed in the early 50s to enable people to share
information initially scientists, engineers and then it was opened to commercial use and regular
people who wanted to share.
The Facebook, Twitter and the social media scenes came into being so people could share their
information and amass followers in their communities.
Along the way, things sorta got out of hand.
Followers became stalkers, stalkers became trackers and a few of the stalkers/trackers became
hackers.
It was okay when there were only a few thousand dedicated folks, but then it became 100K,
100M and now several billion.

Getting Social Give a person a connection and suddenly they want to be social with folks
around the block, around the world. The great thing is theyre using any connected device they
have computer, laptop, smartphone communicating words, photos, videos and it will only
grow more.
Thats when Oda Mae said, Ah, shut up, nobody's talking to you.
But trust me, Ive looked at your Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn and other profiles (maybe not
yours specifically, but enough of em) and they arent that interesting.
Face it, people put the dumbest things online like no one will notice:
- Folks put their extramarital affairs online

Criminals post their latest successes online

People gossip about work and classmates online

Overshare
We share so much that a Pew Research study found we overshare.
66% of internet users said a photo of them was online
50% said their birth date was available
46% said their email address was available online
44% said their employer name was online
38% said bylined pieces were online
30% said their home address was online
29% said their groups and organizations are online.
24% said their cell phone number was available
21% said a video of them was online
21% said their home phone number was online
20% listed their political party or affiliation
The most common answer though was, Ah-h, I dunno.

Protect My Stuff But Worldwide, if you ask people what they really want with their online
presence, theyll say they want privacy. Unfortunately, they share way too much and its there
for anyone/everyone to see (and use) good guys and bad guys.
Weve shared so much that now wed like to have our privacy back.

Oda Mae looked at the situation and said, He's stuck, that's what it is. He's in between worlds.
Constitutional Rights
In the U.S., some are demanding their constitutional right to privacy back (BTW, privacy isnt in
the Constitution).
True, its also not in the Constitution that the government has the right to read/listen to
everything you write/say; but thats another story.
Pew Research recently reported that 59 percent of the respondents said they should be able to use
the Internet anonymously. Internet users reported:
- 18 percent say they use the Internet in a way that hides/masks their identity
- 81 percent obscure at least one or more of their online activities
- 86 percent have tried to be anonymous online to avoid being followed/tracked
- 14 percent have taken steps to encrypt their email
- 14 percent use VPNs (virtual private networks) or proxy servers
Rather than wringing your hands and demanding that the government (and sites) make you less
visible online, there are a lot of steps you can take.

Run Silent, Run Deep After a while, even fame, fortune and visibility become boring and
people take moves to become less visible online. Many try so hard they use 2-4 of the strategies.
While anonymity sounds sorta, kinda good, what about:
- Cyberbullying that has claimed the lives of men, women, children?
- The snarky, even vicious, comments that flood the iNet following an article?
- An idiot makes a stupid comment during an interview or post or Tweet?
- The really bad party photos you so proudly posted/shared with folks?
I dont care what you say, anonymity in these instances is just plain criminal, wrong, stupid!

Or as Oda Mae said, If you didn't have an attitude, you would not have raised your voice at
me.
Those who are serious about keeping their identity under their control generally use a number of
the tactics.

Not You There are obvious people most online users like to avoid such as hackers and
criminals. Most people dont think much about government/law enforcement snooping because
there are other people out there you want to avoid really!
Most people routinely clear their cookie/ browser history, disable cookies, quickly leave websites
that ask for their name/contact information and increasingly encrypt their email (this really
irritates government peek-a-boo agencies).
Cleaning Up
While people are concerned about protecting their personal information and behavior online,
the CCIA (Computer and Communications Industry Association) found people were far more
concerned about being hacked.

Bad Guys Hacking/cybercrime has become big business very quickly and its very profitable.
Poor privacy/security practices make peoples data/information especially vulnerable. There
is less concern about targeted advertising because often there are favorable considerations for
you.
And you should be because according to Kaspersky Labs (anti-virus vendor) and Malwarebytes
(anti-malware provider), hacking, hijacking and cybercrime are multi-billion dollar businesses
that are growing in leaps and bounds and becoming more complex.
Bad folks literally lease out thousands of infected computers or jump on the back of yours that have been updated with the latest vulnerabilities to empty bank accounts or take valuable
personal/business information.
One of Kasperskys executives grimly said, All of us are potential targets of cybercriminals. If
you own a device connected to the Internet, youre a target.
Credit cards, user names, passwords have dollar signs printed all over them for those up to
no good; and most of the time, the crime goes undiscovered or unreported. Many financial
institutions would rather write it off as a cost of doing business rather than damage their
reputation as a safe, secure organization.
True, when Target loses card data for more than 40M people and TJMaxx loses it for more than
90M customers, its a little tough to sweep under the rug; but theyre the exceptions rather than
the rule.
Most hackers, cybercriminals think smaller and dream big.
Yeah, Sure
The CCIA found that consumers were so concerned that:
- 83 percent said they put passwords on their devices

- 76 percent said they use different passwords for each service

- 68 percent have adjusted their privacy settings on a social network or online account
- 65 percent said they have set their browser to disable cookies
- 65 percent said they read the privacy policies for websites they visit (honest!)
Oh, and BTW, most of your passwords suck.
Oda Mae didnt like the way I told you that and said, You can't just blurt it out like that!
According to Adobes annual security report, some of the most common passwords are:
- 123456
- 123456789
- Password
Admin
- Qwerty
- 111111
- abc123
- iloveyou
- aaaaaa

While youre on your own here, Molly had someone looking out for her.

But eventually, we all have to stand on our own; which is why Sam said, its amazing Molly. The
love inside, you take it with you. See ya.