Privacy on the internet....LOL. As long as JP doesn't sell me out to the spammers I'm kewl. If he wants to look in on my info regarding what I do on AO, thats fine too, but I imagine he has bigger fish to fry than me. JMHO ;)
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Privacy on the internet....LOL. As long as JP doesn't sell me out to the spammers I'm kewl. If he wants to look in on my info regarding what I do on AO, thats fine too, but I imagine he has bigger fish to fry than me. JMHO ;)
I've spent my whole life trying to become famous.
Why would I need to hide?
Nobody messes with THE BALROG.
:cool:
Hey guys! I'm really sorry for those that I ticked off with this post. I was just trying to bring up the issue of privacy, and I'm sure it has been discussed many many times on these boards. Sorry for upsetting some of you. It's not what I wanted to do.
Privacy and the Internet - Mutually exclusive if you ask me. . . Even if you unplug your machine from the wall, that doesn't stop companies from keeping info on you - banks, credit cards, etc. Not much you can do though. . . . Kinda' scary, but that's the way it is.
Teufel. . . . Its a good topic to discuss. Dont worry about it. Sit back & watch the thread grow. ;)
Oh. I thought so too rogue spy.. that was untill everyone started giving me negative antipoints for it and calling me stupid(I'm not really sure why). Yeah privacy is impossible at my local supermarket they have these cards that you can use to get things cheaper, but they keep track of all your purchases.
Teufel,
you may have came off the wrong way to the wrong people. You should of posted more about your intentions of this thread, maybe more facts and possible ways this could be improved. You came off with a joke, and then tried to turn it in to a reasonable thread. Its a good post. I just think maybe you came off the wrong way. Just an opinion...
Khakisrle > I may be wrong, but I think Teufel's point was that you can click a button and find out which users downloaded a specific file, not that JP has links to the files that people uploded on their profiles.
Pertaining to the topic, I can think of at least one reason why giving out download info could be less than desirable. Lets say that someone posts a file that pertains only to Firewall X v3.2c. Well, anyone who cared to look at the list of people who downloaded the file would be able to guess (with reasonable accuracy) that those 6 people probably used Firewall X. While that doesn't do you much good without an IP, there are also quite a few people around here that aren't shy about advertising websites that they wrote or the companies that they work for. That means a simple DNS lookup will probably put you in the correct subnet as the firewall.
Neither of these pieces of information in and of themselves are particularly threatening. Even when combined, it still doesn't give you much, but every little scrap of information that an attacker can get about your network setup makes it that much more vulnerable to attack. Good sysadmins never answer questions about their network setup to people without a need to know, because if the attacker knows that you're running Firewall X v3.2c, then he can research the firewall and learn its strengths and weaknesses.
Of course, as Microsoft has taught us, obscurity is never a substitute for good security, but even still, the less information you give away to your attacker, the better off you are.
In a world that has evolved into such a technological enviroment, it's hard to keep one's life 'private' from prying eyes, whether they be of good or bad intentions. ;)