ANTIONLINE invasion of PRIVACY?

I have found that antionline is invading our privacy by showing what attachments have been downloaded by whom on the forum. Why do others need to know what users have downloaded Is this not an invasion of privacy by allowing users to know what attachement others are downloading. Not that its such a terrible thing! It's just the princple of the issue.

I wonder what else JP is logging about us?

Haha, ok maybe I'm just being pyscho. But whatever! Oh yes.. we also submit our profiles which give access to thousands of people our personal information. Is it really worth it? Alot of new time internet users don't even understand the maginitude of what may happen because of it.

DO not give in to the internet crowed! Remane annoymouse, or just be an annoying mouse. :cool: like me.

Also when you vote for a poll anyone can see what you vote on. JP has databases full of info about each of us...all our threads, convos, everything...

Like the internet should be!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! It's my worse nightmare. JP I beg you to delete all of your information for the sake of privacy! :)

Mmm.. You're very right about the poll thing. I think at least that sould be anonymously and if you want everyone to know what you chose you just post a post.

Privacy? What are you talking about? There is no privacy on this site. You should see the databases he has. And guess what... The government has complete, unrestricted access to them. Maybe you should read the terms of use and privacy statement. Then you would understand a little bit better....
http://www.antionline.com/about.php?...ion=disclaimer
http://www.antionline.com/about.php?s=&action=privacy

Teufel: Maybe you're on the wrong site.

There is no privacy on the internet. It's only a myth, most isp's log everything you do. Anything unencrypted or using weak encryption is at the fingertips of millions of people.

Sorry everyone... I was just trying to bring up the topic for those that were not aware. I really have no problem with them logging my information... as long as the site is not selling it or using it for any purpose that other than a legal one. It is all good!

I fail to see how that is an invasion of privacy as anything you upload for others to download is available to everybody anyways. Putting it in the profiles just makes to files easier to find and sets records. How is that information in any fashion an invasion of privacy? I fail to see how, the whole point of a forum is for everybody to talk, not to only let some people see some things. We are all here and we are all allowed to access every thing here (unless you have under 275 posts)

EDIT: And any repsonsible administrator logs the activity on his systems. To do otherwise would invite disaster. You have to make sure nothing illegal is going on and that you can't be held accountable. Just saying that I'm sure logs exist and of course they should exist.

If you want to be private dont post! as souleman said read the disclaimer. But how can you come to a public forum and claim you want privacy?? I fail to see the logic there.

P.S. the Matrix has you ;)

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. ;)