Big brother is watching ya...

[TawnerX]

If ya want to get Microsoft favors, better watch what ya say In email and newsgroup. And if you are reallllly bad, better do identity fragmentation of microsoft is going to track you down with all data connected to its database. (ehrm...if you can imagine it, it's already been done. IM, pasport, email, )

Actually this goes for any .net forum, since your post and written material never really dies and can be integrated to any publicly available data.

http://news.com.com/2008-1082_3-5065298.html

public e-mail lists, tracking and rating contributors' social habits and determining "people who the system has shown to have value." Those concerned that it's not a good idea for computers to track their belongings and whereabouts are advised that they may ultimately have to fragment their identities, keeping multiple IDs and e-mail addresses.

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/08/20/1254232.shtml?tid=109&tid=126&tid=158&tid=187&tid=95&tid=99

[Pat Logsdon]

I guess I don't see the problem here. After reading the article, it seems like Microsoft is looking at publicly available information with two goals in mind: A) Create a search engine to challenge Google, and B) Find a way to combat spam.

This is just data mining, nothing new, except that perhaps it's being looked at by a sociologist for relationships and ranking purposes. Google does something similar via their PageRank technology, and most people are just fine with that (except for this guy (http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/29/google_watch/index.html), perhaps).

I'm curious - how do you see Big Brother in this?

[hollis_f]

I'm curious - how do you see Big Brother in this? Just because they are out to get you, doesn't mean you're not paranoid :wink: