There were two stories in the news that really caught my eye in the past week, one cautionary and the other just for fun.  Nothing to do with storage, though both have social media implications, my other passion.

The first story is about a company that reportedly exploits parent’s fears of online predators to install spyware on the child’s computer.  It is sold as a product that monitors a child’s online communications and reports back to the parents anything they need to be concerned about.  That’s great stuff – I have no qualm with that at all.  But then it sells the data it gathers about what kids are saying about assorted products and services and sells it (in aggregate) to people that want to exploit your kids. The lesson is one that you’ll hear repeatedly: READ THE FINE PRINT!  The fact that the company is doing this is outlined in the license agreement, but hey, who reads those?  Do you?  Or do you just click on “Accept” once you see how long, complex, and legalese they are?

In today’s world, it’s never been more important to read the fine print – we’ve (electronically) busted through the traditional boundaries of our homes and offices. We’re all interconnected.  We should be proactively trying to find out what’s done with the information we share, which is now shared among anyone who searches our name on the web and with marketeers that want to get at our pocketbooks.  All too often, we learn on the back end, when its reported in the news.

Enough of the soap box.  Did everyone catch the story about the carrier pigeon carrying data across a 50-mile stretch of South Africa faster than the local telco could transmit it?

• Share