Do you like Being Watched Online?

Opt-in Snooping - Network World

Open source and currently only available for Windows and Mac.

 

Snoopon.me What a name Well nobody can complain they aren't upfront about it

Spice Well that's one word for it, i can think of a Much better one though

Complete nightmare waiting to happen But you can bet all those eager to divulge to world types on facebook/twitter etc etc will lap this up too.

Looks like a prime candidate for a google etc buyout before too long. Lots of nice data merging to be done

Guess you can tell i won't be signing on

 

Now why on earth would I sign up to be snooped on after all the learning; tweaking and installing of software to keep people out, apart from the short term goals and being short sighted. I would be shooting myself in the foot.

 

This is not a privacy 'concern'. This is software that a person must knowingly seek out and desire to install. No drive-by downloads going on here, nothing secretive going on here (in more ways than one).

No, I don't care to participate-- just like I don't care to have a Facebook account.
No one forces or recommends to me that I join Facebook, just as no one is going to force or recommend to me that I install this software. The software isn't going to be installed behind my back or through devious measures.

But to suggest in any way whatsoever that this software is going to somehow compromise all of our privacy is . . . . umm, potentially dead on target.

Because I don't have to use it to have my online privacy compromised, actually.
Suppose someone using the software is involved in this forum topic right here, for example. Well, my reply or replies get posted to some website where people who never before in their lives heard of 'wilderssecurity.com' and who would never otherwise see my posts-- see my posts.

Or perhaps someone I know who uses that software is reading an e-mail from me when a screenshot is taken and posted. I'd put that in the category of compromising my personal privacy, no question. And with little way for me to know that something had just happened that I'd never give my consent to.

I started to post here saying that only those who willingly seek out and install the software would be at any risk (to wit: my first two paragraphs of this post), but as I consider it more, I consider it to not necessarily be the case at all.
I can easily see how there could be innocent and unknowing victims made from this software's usage. And I see nothing in the article or at the 'snoopon.me' website that explains how this would be in any way preventable.

So here's the next logical question: How do *I* 'opt-out', when someone with whom I'm communicating online, in whatever fashion, has 'opted-in'?

 

It's actually quite simple. Once you communicate something, you can't be sure where it'll end up. If you don't want X on the internet or wherever, don't communicate X to anyone or anything. People make mistakes. Sometimes they lie. Or whatever.

My solution is (as many of you know) anonymity. I have many pseudonyms. Hierophant stands behind everything that hierophant has ever written or done (going back over ten years). That applies to each of my pseudonyms. The less I want to be associated with whatever, the harder I work to disassociate that pseudonym from myself and other pseudonyms. However, I fully expect that anyone can read everything associated with any of them. It's just that they won't know who's who.

 

All of your e-mail accounts are under the name 'Hierophant'? No e-mail you've ever sent to anyone has ever mentioned anything that would be specific to you, your location, or your life?

My theoretical of someone letting this software post a screenshot to a website, and that screenshot containing information that affects someone else's privacy, is not something that I see as being easily guarded against.

It's the kind of thing that may not happen often or may not always have any sort of serious ramifications, yet nonetheless something not inconceivable.

The bottom line is that I don't want anyone posting any random snippet of any e-mail or other computer-borne communique by me, to them, to any website without my first giving consent. And most especially not to any website where the purpose of posting those screenshots is so others might see 'what's going on in my/his/her life'.

The privacy implications of this particular software and web setup aren't really about what 'you do' online-- they're about what the other fellow is doing, and how that can compromise your own privacy merely through choices he's made about his privacy online.

Not to be all up-in-arms about it-- after all, the chances of him screwing me/you through this software's usage are probably fairly remote, and it's not like everyone's going to be standing on line to install the garbage anyway-- but still, it emits an aroma of which I'm not fond.

 

I usually open up a new email account for every new group or message board that I join. And I never associate it with anything outside of that environment. And of course I use my VPN.

 

No, there's just one Hierophant account. My main IRL email address goes back over 15 years, and has zero connection to Hierophant. My IRL identity has no interest in privacy or anonymity, and has never even browsed Wilders (for example). Hierophant is very interested in such things, but doesn't care much about politics (for example). And there are lots of Hierophants (bands, even). I don't use VPNs for any IRL activities. I've had scores of other email addresses over the years, all anonymized in one way or another. Does anyone else remember Mixmaster remailers and Private Idaho

I don't get that. A screenshot of an email or post from Hierophant would reveal nothing about my IRL identity (or any other pseudonym). And vice versa. As long as you don't cross-reference identities, you're safe.

Anyway, I don't mean to dismiss your concerns. I'm also gobsmacked that people would install such software. My point is simply that it's best to assume that everything you write could become public.

 

You all seem to be missing the point on this one.

I have a friend, "George". George uses this screenshot-posting software, but I don't know that.
I've recently had my phone number changed, and I send my friend George an e-mail giving him my new number.
I also tell him the details of some health problems I'm having, and let him know I'll be checking into Kansas City General Hospital on August 18, and give him the room number I'll be in and the phone number he can reach me at there.
While George is reading this e-mail, the screenshot software grabs a shot of George's desktop and posts that screenshot at the snoop.me website.
The screenshot contains two phone numbers where I can be reached (one being my home), a room number and hospital name where I'll be checking in, and details of health issues I'm having.

Get the picture?
My privacy has been compromised soley due to George's use of this software. I have no way of knowing this has happened.

On this one, it's not about using anonymous identities online.
No, the sky isn't falling. But the potential for a third-party's privacy to be compromised through someone else's use of the software seems real enough.
Not highly likely perhaps, yet possible.

 

OK, I get that. I won't say that I wouldn't care about such information being public. However, my IRL address, IP address, and all of my telephone numbers are widely available on the internet. I'm on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, various "yellow pages" sites, and whatever. That's all good, in case some potential client hears my name and wants to contact me. There's nothing in my past that I'm hiding from. Indeed, I've endeavored at times to contact everyone I've been incomplete with, and have done whatever it takes to get complete. There really isn't anything I'm hiding -- except, of course, for all of the stuff that I am hiding, such as this

 

And I fully understand you on that position. Perfectly normal.

Like I said-- I'm not going to be soiling myself over concerning about the software, I just recognize there are certain abuse or privacy issues potentially in play with it.

Btw-- when I visited the 'snoop.me' site, one of the screenshots posted on the homepage was of a pr0n movie playing on someone's desktop.
Which is a different issue-- but I'd imagine the software would be attractive to a younger, 'MySpace' kind of crowd, and them seeing pr0n screenshots when they go to check out what their pals are up to might not be what their moms and dads would prefer for them.

 

Reading their site, they say that text is safe from snooping because the screen shots aren't scalable.
So things like emails should be safe.

How well do they secure the screen shot database, which might have the original pics?
Are the images sent of the same size and quality as the image on the DB?

 

Well that's how it'll come back to "byte" them in the A** and that won't be pron

Looks like it could be a very serious legal nightmare for them, especially in the USA. If people of any age are able to view what you did, just like that, then i hope they have good lawyers

 

Yep, good points.

Of course texts are safe. Guess that's why this was included in their website description:

Except that:

http://snoopon.me/aboutus

So, I wonder how we're supposed to see Hebrew and Arabic texts in the screenshots, when texts in the screenshots are illegible? Those two things would seem to be at odds with each other.
I dunno. All Greek to me.

Then we've got this (as you mentioned):



How very comforting.
Guess that's why I was redirected to a server-error page when I tried to look at the screenshot 'sample'.

But here's what they're doing:

So make no mistake about that, and set the mind at ease.

Another quote:

http://snoopon.me/aboutus/confidentiality

In the interests of fair play:

http://snoopon.me/aboutus/rules

Though the second sentence makes no sense. But I'll take it for supposing to mean they have a rule against posting pr0n.
No point in even getting into exactly how it doesn't get posted, when the software automatically grabs and posts screenshots.
And they might have "rules" about what gets posted, but of course nowhere do they make any guarantee they'll be able to adequately enforce any rule.

If the website and their software should happen to die off quickly, I'm not going to mourn. In either my profile picture, either. Nor neither.
So there.