#1042 Privacy Piracy

Having said that I hate Facebook and will always unfriend it, it doesn’t address the larger issue of those who do love it and the consequences of that love.
E-peer pressure. Or perhaps i-Peer Pressure.
Because it is becoming impossible to sidestep e-association all together. The other day a person from an organization that had been keeping me updated on an upcoming event said I should check her Facebook for the latest copy of a poster. Couldn’t she have just sent it to me when she sent the email telling me to check her Facebook?
Not long after, I’m at the David Letterman website and it says David Letterman is now on Facebook. I like Letterman. But now if I want to see what other people are seeing, I have to join Facebook.
Lately it seems everyone wants to use a new e-invite service. They make me use this online system to RSVP. I don’t like doing that. The site harvests data they don’t need to know.
Hey. I’m coming. This is my name. Deal with it.
On the site you see a list of everyone else who is coming and their clever little “I’ll be there with bells on” remarks. Sorry, it’s not that important to me to read other people invitation confirmations. And I sure as hell don’t want to share mine with anyone but the hosts.
Then again, it did help me duck an ex-girlfriend once, so maybe it’s a good idea. Definitely provided me a little temporary e-harmony.
But it’s getting out of control. Now every time I attend an event and leave my email address I get a follow-up “survey monkey” sent to my inbox. Hey, I went to the event, I don’t want to provide you with exhaustive demographic information about me as a result.
My day is enough like a zoo already, I don’t need to spend it with monkeys, survey or otherwise.
But I do feel like one animal—a cow in a chute on the way to the slaughterhouse. Being forced with the herd down this inexorable path to e-doom.
And the total piracy of my privacy.
America, ya gotta love it.