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idonojacs
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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 Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 5:53 am Post subject: Avatars, are they safe, actually??? |
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Hey, I was thinking (is this legal in Korea?), what happens when you link to an avatar?
Wouldn't the outfit posting the avatar be able to track the pages where the avatar is used?
Not that it would be possible for them to link this to me, personally -- or would they?
What's in it for them giving away the avatars and smileys and stuff? |
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mysteriousdeltarays
Joined: 07 Feb 2003
Location: Food Pyramid Bldg. 5F, 77 Sunset Strip, Alphaville
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: |
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| Are you Ok? |
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caniff
Joined: 03 Feb 2004
Location: All over the map
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:12 am Post subject: |
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You can protect yourself by putting a tin foil hat on your computer.
That's what I did. So far, so good. |
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idonojacs
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 6:39 am Post subject: |
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Very funny.
I posed this as a question. I will now rephrase that question.
The avatar is hosted on a avatar provider's website. You link to this website when you put the avatar on this site as a link, correct?
So, would the avatar provider be able to collect data on the sites and pages where the avatar appears?
Would the avatar provider be able to determine your internet address, given that you have linked to the avatar?
Would the avatar provider be able to determine the internet address of the person viewing the page with the avatar?
Why does Yahoo encourage you to put an avatar on your e-mail page, which only you view? Does the avatar then appear on other Yahoo sites you use? Does this provide useful information to Yahoo?
I don't know enough about computers to say.
Does all this matter?
Probably not. Just another irritant in the creeping invasion of privacy of our modern world.
But now that I think about it, an avatar could be one piece of the puzzle to a detective trying to track a criminal. If the same avatar is used on multiple sites by the same person, such as for e-mail, too, then that could provide a link, provided a cop could get the data. Not that I am a criminal, or anything close. You don't have to be a criminal to cherish privacy.
It seems to me we blithely do all sorts of things on the Web and in modern daily life in general, with little thought about how we are surrendering our privacy. I am not a number, and I don't like marketing agencies viewing me as a bit of data to be manipulated. |
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jazblanc77
Joined: 22 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:36 pm Post subject: |
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| I have never heard of injuries incurred by avatars. |
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normalcyispasse
Joined: 27 Oct 2006
Location: Yeosu until the end of February WOOOOOOOO
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:09 am Post subject: |
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| mysteriousdeltarays wrote: |
| Are you Ok? |
아 유 크레이지? 아하하하! |
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idonojacs
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:13 am Post subject: |
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Oh, I forgot. This is Dave's.
Dave's ESL Cafe, where ridicule masquerades as informed opinion, and where actual knowledge is not a prerequisite to providing "answers."
Foolish me. What could I have been thinking? |
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renzobenzo1
Joined: 08 Sep 2007
Location: Suji, Yongin
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 4:16 am Post subject: |
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someone's paranoid  |
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Chicoloco
Joined: 18 Oct 2006
Location: In the ring.
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
You can protect yourself by putting a tin foil hat on your computer.
That's what I did. So far, so good. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Sun Dec 23, 2007 5:33 pm Post subject: |
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| idonojacs wrote: |
But now that I think about it, an avatar could be one piece of the puzzle to a detective trying to track a criminal. If the same avatar is used on multiple sites by the same person, such as for e-mail, too, then that could provide a link, provided a cop could get the data. Not that I am a criminal, or anything close. You don't have to be a criminal to cherish privacy.
It seems to me we blithely do all sorts of things on the Web and in modern daily life in general, with little thought about how we are surrendering our privacy. I am not a number, and I don't like marketing agencies viewing me as a bit of data to be manipulated. |
Most of us host our avatars on an image hosting site like photobucket or imageshack, where its one among millions of images, and if any sort of log is kept, it would be massive, far too large for anyone to go prowling through for no particular reason.
Honestly, if you're concerned about the net and privacy, the site to be concerned about is Facebook, which can and sometimes does track your surfing on other sites. |
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idonojacs
Joined: 07 Jun 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 2:51 am Post subject: |
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Anyone who thinks that websites won't take advantage of any marketing or data collection opportunity they can get is naive.
For example, at the top of my gmail account today, I noticed the following message:
Teach English in Korea - www.teacheng.co.kr - Excellent teaching position. No Service Charge. All free.
I don't think it was purely random.
However, at this point, I would be more interested in a Teach English in Japan ad. I don't think they have figured how to get webservers to read your mind, though. |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 6:05 am Post subject: |
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| jazblanc77 wrote: |
| I have never heard of injuries incurred by avatars. |
Just wait  |
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nicholas_chiasson
Joined: 14 Jun 2007
Location: Samcheok
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:26 pm Post subject: |
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| idonojacs wrote: |
Anyone who thinks that websites won't take advantage of any marketing or data collection opportunity they can get is naive.
For example, at the top of my gmail account today, I noticed the following message:
Teach English in Korea - www.teacheng.co.kr - Excellent teaching position. No Service Charge. All free.
I don't think it was purely random.
However, at this point, I would be more interested in a Teach English in Japan ad. I don't think they have figured how to get webservers to read your mind, though. |
google is very famous for its invasive technologies...and will sell them to the chinese soon. |
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browneyedgirl
Joined: 17 Jul 2007
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| Posted: Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:58 pm Post subject: |
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| idonojacs wrote: |
Very funny.
I posed this as a question. I will now rephrase that question.
The avatar is hosted on a avatar provider's website. You link to this website when you put the avatar on this site as a link, correct?
So, would the avatar provider be able to collect data on the sites and pages where the avatar appears?
Would the avatar provider be able to determine your internet address, given that you have linked to the avatar?
Would the avatar provider be able to determine the internet address of the person viewing the page with the avatar?
Why does Yahoo encourage you to put an avatar on your e-mail page, which only you view? Does the avatar then appear on other Yahoo sites you use? Does this provide useful information to Yahoo?
I don't know enough about computers to say.
Does all this matter?
Probably not. Just another irritant in the creeping invasion of privacy of our modern world.
But now that I think about it, an avatar could be one piece of the puzzle to a detective trying to track a criminal. If the same avatar is used on multiple sites by the same person, such as for e-mail, too, then that could provide a link, provided a cop could get the data. Not that I am a criminal, or anything close. You don't have to be a criminal to cherish privacy.
It seems to me we blithely do all sorts of things on the Web and in modern daily life in general, with little thought about how we are surrendering our privacy. I am not a number, and I don't like marketing agencies viewing me as a bit of data to be manipulated. |
Wouldn't it be easier to trace a computer address? Or if someone uses different computers they could trace all their sites after someone logs into their personal email (say google or yahoo) and then see where they go online after that, and figure out which user they were that way (and everything they posted). Then there are people that use the same forum names on different sites~so there you go.  |
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igotthisguitar
Joined: 08 Apr 2003
Location: South Korea (Permanent Vacation)
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| Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 5:51 am Post subject: |
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| browneyedgirl wrote: |
| Wouldn't it be easier to trace a computer address? Or if someone uses different computers they could trace all their sites after someone logs into their personal email (say google or yahoo) and then see where they go online after that, and figure out which user they were that way (and everything they posted). Then there are people that use the same forum names on different sites~so there you go. |
Yep ...
That kinda thing has been going on since the internet first came online.
Everything we type is recorded databased (even if you DELETE it) 
Part of the "IN YOUR FACE" agenda that gets to me is when your server allows e.g. SEXY SPAM ADS to pop up on your screen, demonstrating these crooks know exactly what city, province & likely even PC Bang you're located in.
Creepy. |
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