k-Anonymity for Our Public Lives

I was just reading a paper that proposes a way to provide anonymity for location based services, and it really got me thinking about the priorities in information security and privacy.  The authors are in the College of Computing at the Georgia Institute of Technology, and cite information leakage and a slippery slope slide into a 1984, George Orwell inspired, world where large amounts of location based information combined with public records provides a complete picture of the individual.

Take for example that a particular mobile device always looks for places to eat near a rehab hospital, that same mobile device begins long trips (GPS data) from a particular (home) address, and that home address is linked to a name in the white-pages.  This contrived example is not bullet-proof, but it illustrates how information leakage can, over time, expose a lot more about ourselves than we originally thought.

While all of this is well and good, and I appreciate the efforts of academic researchers; however, I can't help but think that we are not addressing the real problem.  If you are worried about data leakage, then you should be terrified about the way that most of us throw lots of information about our professional and private lives into the public domain readily.  Facebook is the prime example, and to their credit they have taken steps to remedy the data disclosure problems in older versions of their system.  People just have no notion of how the things they publish can effect them later on.  I even have an example where the person in question didn't even intend on providing a lot of information...I give you as an example the 

Jack and Jane Smith case...

Jack and Jane Smith think they are a clever pair, because every-time there is a marketing or signup sheet that asks for an email address they list mine instead of their own.  This seems innocent enough, but what they don't realize is that every piece of solicited junk that shows up in my inbox fills in more details about their personal and private lives.  This compounded with the fact that they have chosen to use their real names in coordination with these mailings accelerates this process even further.  The real funny part is that Jack fancies himself as an IT professional (don't get me started on this).

This project all got started when I got a "happy thanksgiving" email from Freedom Toyota in Hamburg, PA.  This got me to thinking that maybe this wasn't random internet spam, but that maybe all the emails that I keep getting for Jack and Jane are substantiated in some way.  Then I decided to do a bit of googling to find out more of who these people are...

Jack Smith is a 49 year old IT guy who lives in Schuylkill Haven, PA (I have the exact address and phone number) and I know when and where he went to high-school (Facebook), where he has worked (Linkedin), and lots of seemingly benign things like kids names and relatives (mom?).

Jane Smith is the 45 year old wife of Jack and lives with her husband in a modest home in an relatively urban area.  Not to be outdone by her husband she also provides lots of personal information on her website.

They have some kids and here is where things aren't quite so clear, and this is probably a result of multiple marriages and kids with former spouses, but they definitely have a kid named Jen.  What is interesting is that Jen is probably not Jane's daughter, because the Name Donna pops up quite a bit.  Jen lists a number of siblings on her Facebook page that don't show up on Jack, Jen or Donna's pages (family relationships can be quite complex).  But what is clear is that we know who Jen's main crush is.  She is also quite the aspiring photographer and fond of the UK...

If you still think all of this is pretty innocent then let me propose the following...I know names, and addresses and phone numbers, mothers, daughters, maiden names, high-schools cities/dates of birth and what kind of house/cars they own.  These sound a lot like the types of security questions that get asked when you call a customer service desk right?  Further all of this was acquired without spending a dime of my money.  I can't fathom the information I would get by paying a few dollars for background and records searches or the parents!  This could all lead to identity theft or worse.

When I got to this point I realized that I should go back and change the names...If their is a real Jack and Jane Smith, then you know that your name is just too common and generic and should have expected this or at least seen it coming...

A broader perspective...

The point is that there is no point in comprising intricate and complex algorithms for hiding personal information if people are going to be stupid and give it way.  This is a new area of concern for adults, but what will it mean for our kids who's photos and lives have been the subject of baby blogs and Twitter feeds since before they were even born?  Will the definition of privacy change as the founder of Facebook claims?  

In design/engineering you are taught to tackle the problem that has the greatest weight (opportunity for improvement) first.  Said another way...if you are drowning and holding onto an anvil, let go of that before you attempt to save yourself by emptying your pockets of lose change!

PS:  I have no intention of releasing the information about the Smiths, but I do intend to continue collecting information about them for as long as they are dumb enough to use my email address for marketing signups and spam likely forms...

It's Quit Facebook Day

While hanging out with friends this weekend we passed around an article that highlights the privacy and ethical shortfalls of Facebook.  Many of us commented on our intention to delete our accounts.  I have followed through on this and I hope that many of them will as well.  I have found a couple of things that will make the transition to a non-Facebook me easier.

Keeping your contacts:

This process allows you to get all of the email and other information from Facebook into other programs.  The point here is that while Facebook has allowed us to get in touch with many old friends that may not be the way we want to continue to keep track of them.  The process involves using a yahoo email account which has the option for importing your contact information from Facebook.  Then export that information to your service/application of choice.

Microbloging -- Status Updates:

While Twitter is not the perfect solution it is simple and there is little mistake about what is public and what is not.  I have a Twitter account that I will continue to use (http://twitter.com/gavaletz)

Bigger Posts:

I plan on using my blog (you are here now) for posts that are to lengthy to fit into the character limit for the Twitter API.  Here again there is little confusion about what is private or not.

Chat and Messages:

Email and instant messaging has worked for almost a decade and there seems little reason to think that it is not capable of working again.  I don't plan on posting an email address here, but if you are/were one of my friends on Facebook you have received a email from me explaining that I have left Facebook behind with my contact information including a link to this blog.

Photos and Videos:

This is somewhere that I found Facebook to be particularly weak anyways.  For video we use youtube and for photos we have always preferred Flickr.  Both of these sites offer free accounts to receive updates when your friends post new photos, but offer RSS feeds as well (more on that in a minute).

Private Posts:

There are some posts that are private in nature that I would like to share with family and friends but maybe not the entire Internet.  There is not an immediately clear solution to this, but then again there might be a problem with trying to post something that is partially protected to the internet.  It is possible to make a protected blog that requires users to register to see the posts and that may be the solution.

Aggregating the Information:

One of the selling points of Facebook is that it has everything in one convenient place.  I don't have to check n different blogs for my n friends.  There is a solution for this too.  And you have your choice in providers!  I personally use Google Reader, but there are many other options.  Most blogs, twitter feeds etc. have the option of subscribing to an RSS feed.  You may recognize it by the small orange square with the white curved lines...  Clicking on this button will allow you to follow this feed in your RSS reader.  This way you have one place to look to all of the most recent blog/twitter updates from your friends.

What is Missing:

There are some features of Facebook that are not replicated in my plan, but that may be for the better.  I will be so glad to never hear about the sheep that wandered off someone's farm.  The social network is missing, but lets be honest about that.  Most of us have filled in our social network from our past more than we would like to, and if someone wants to find my blog or twitter feed then they can simply search for me on Google.

There are plans in the works for a open source solution to Facebook.  Without a centralized entity controlling our data we can share and feel more in control, but the honest truth is that once shared we are never in control.  These guys are well funded and have some great ideas about an alternative to Facebook that puts 100% of the control in the user's hands.

What you Gain:

Following this type of plan does not put all of your digital "eggs" in one basket.  Facebook is not alone, and many of the services that I have described above are corporate entities completely capable of making bad decisions with your data.  BUT, by not relying on one for everything you are free to move one bit to another provider without having to change everything.  Further by not having everything in one place you are doing less to empower one company with all of your data.

To Conclude:

It is important that we share our information responsibly, and that means taking a long hard look at the companies that we are trusting with our data.  The biggest reason for me taking the steps to deactivate my account is that even though I have taken the time and the care to set privacy settings for my account Facebook has a history of setting those to a conveniently open default when it wants to roll out an "update."  There is no opt-in for Facebook because they survie on me sharing more and more private and personal information.  I would encourage you to have a look at the article in Time Magazine that made me and many of my friends realize that Facebook was not something that we wanted to be a part of.

Suggested chat program...

A friend recently turned me onto a program that can intergrate many of the chat services that we use into one window. I liked that iChat does this somewhat, but it lacks some features that I would love to have... Primarily I hate having separate buddy lists for various accounts.

The program is Adium (http://adium.im/) and it supports a lot of differnt chat protocols, including Facebook. I think I may try it out in the coming weeks, but I welcome comments from anyone that is currently using it. If it means that I can use Facebook to keep in touch with people without having to see one more Mafia Wars or Farm update I am game to add another piece of software...

On a side note, I just figured out that I can block all posts from an app on Facebook! This may not be news to the rest of you, but I don't care that "a sheep wandered off of your farm while you were looking for the golden craps dice!"