As you can tell, I blog, like so many of you, using 'Blogger'. This is a 'Google' product. I also use 'Gmail', another google product for personal email. I use "Google" for my search engine, and "Google Maps" for that stuff. I don't own shares or anything, it has just worked out like that.
One of the prices you pay for using some big companies' software and storage (they store all of my emails in an archive they tell has almost 8 GB of available space just for me) is they put advertising on the page where your emails come up. It is a small price. The ads are also small; almost invisible actually. I get a kick out of seeing what ads and links automatically are generated, depending upon the topic and content of the email you are looking at. I will let your imagination roam on this topic now! :)
Sometimes technology can be a true pain. There are the spammers, and yes they are a pain, but it is a small action to relegate an email to the trash if the filter does not happen to catch it. Having to check the spam box regularly can be a problem, since every now and then something I really do want to look at ends up in there.
Recently, I have started receiving "friends requests" from a new (to me anyway) networking site. It basically came up as an email from this site telling me that a friend who I correspond with wants to be my friend there and I can either accept (big smily face) or reject (really sad face) them. Naturally, if you chose to accept, then you are joining this site, and they gain you as a client and can make money through the advertising you will see, and of course, the information you are going to provide them about yourself. I decided to email my friend and tell her I was going to ignore the email because I really don't do social networking sites. She replied that she had not joined this site, but had received a similar request from the same site supposedly via another 'friend'.
This got me thinking along the lines of how in the world they got our names and email addresses? It got me wondering how many of my contacts are now wondering whether they like me well enough to join some site that is telling them I need a friend and will be so hurt if they ignore me; whaaa! :(
Sure, I need all the friends I can get, but you can be assured that I will send you a personal email, and I will use my secret decoder ring password as part of the message!
Halle
xox
^ secret code ;)
They get their names from friends or even colleagues I'm afraid...
ReplyDeleteSome of these sites have the ability to do 'Friend Searches', either from your email client contact list, your online email contact list or even from your phone contact list.
If someone has done this then they app that reads the contacts can get your details without anything that you have done.
(Or at least that would be my thoughts on how you and your friend were both targeted...)
Stace
PS I could be completely wrong here :)
I'm usually pretty paranoid over some of these things. If I get a "friend request" from someone I know but from a place I've never been, I will contact using the sites we've been using all along. Sometimes they're surprised by this themselves.
ReplyDeleteBut sometimes they'll say, "Yes I'm on there, it's a great place." So I check it out for myself. But if the site asks for my email address AND password, the paranoid Klaxons start sounding. I'm not that naive.
And while I'm on Facebook, (but not as Sarah, sorry. Maybe some day.), I check the security settings from time to time. Seems every time they change things these revert back to their default unsecure settings.
Don't mean to unnerve you by this, but I know not everyone has my best interests at heart. I try not to let them get that close. As so far I have been pretty lucky.
Sarah
I share these fears. It's not the technology, though. It's those who misuse it.
ReplyDelete8GB, spam box, friend requests, what's all that?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I should even be more scared of technology than I already am.
Ellena, it is possible that the pure of heart, such as yourself, may pass unscathed. We can hope!
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Halle
xox