[clug] [OT] Broadband clangers

[Robert Edwards]

On 18/08/10 11:57, Christopher Yeoh wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:37:02 +1000
> Robert Edwards<bob at cs.anu.edu.au>  wrote:
>> On 17/08/10 16:18, Christopher Yeoh wrote:
>>> On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:29:22 +1000
>>> Robert Edwards<bob at cs.anu.edu.au>   wrote:
>>>
>>> If you're twittering it, then you're not going to care about anyone
>>> seeing it.
>>>
>>> Chris
>>
>> It's not the tweets. Nobody cares what you tweet (other than the other
>> twits). It's the metadata. And, in particular, the authentication
>> token you are sending across an international boundary (and into the
>> U.S. in particular). Which IP address were you using. When did you
>> send it. Who were you following. Who was following you. What platform
>> were you using. etc. etc.
>
> Sure there is some metadata they get along with it, but:
>
>> When did you send it. Who were you following. Who was following you.
>> What platform were you using. etc. etc.
>
> Twitter already makes these publicly available to all, and users
> (should) realise this.
>
> Lots of third parties using the above data for various reasons.
>
> Believe it or not increasingly people are also sending geo location
> data along with their tweets. You'd probably hate foursquare even
> more :-)
>
> Chris

So, back to my original concern, I have no particular problem with
people who willingly engage in unsafe practices on the Internet.

What I do have a problem with is the ABC and our political "leaders"
encouraging (almost requiring) us to engage in these unsafe practices
in order to participate with them in the political debate.

In the case of the ABC "hack" program, my mistake, I concede that
they are also listing e-mail as a contact option. But by listing
the twitter "tags" they are also effectively endorsing (and promoting)
the use of the off-shore twitter "service".

Once upon a time the constituency looked to their elected reps to
show "leadership". These days our pollies just want to respond to
the directions of the media moguls in the guise of responding to
public sentiment. It's probably a good thing that the pollies don't
try and "lead" anymore, but I wish we had a better way of communicating
the public sentiment.

Bob Edwards.