Recently in Computer Privacy Category

This is a book that is about right now. It plays out the tension and intersection of privacy versus safety in the after math of a terrorist incident in the SF Bay Area. The book will probably seem dated pretty quick since the technology and lingo are so current, but the story is still great. This book marks a turning point in Cory Doctorows writing. This book is a real turning point for the author, Cory Doctorow. Previous works like "Eastern Standard Tribe" or "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom", or even a novella I truly loved "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" were good reads but it wasn't something I would try and get friends who weren't sci-fi/cyberpunk fans to check out and read. This book changes all that - I know I'll probably mail my copy off to my nephew to read. If you are too cheap to get the book, the txt download will be posted soon I'm sure.

So this person data mined a bunch of amazon wishlists. (Apparently the hard way, by web scraping rather than by using the easier and more efficient amazon web api.) He was able to then do some matching on book titles to determine which wish lists were more or less subversive. Then he used google maps to figure out where people lived.

You can bet the next time I interview a job candidate I'm going to check out what is on their amazon wish list. (Note to self, clean up amazon wish list next time I interview for a job.)

The best part is that this little experiment shows how data privacy issues often involve people voluntarily giving up their private information for a reason, in this case the reason is getting better presents. (BTW, I'm still waiting for that New Yorker Cartoon book.) So much for worrying about the FBI going to the library to figure out what I read.

[Link courtesy of Dave's Picks]