Since social isolation causes psychological pain, another question must be addressed: "Why do seemingly normal people isolate themselves from society?"
Back on October 10, 2003 at 2:55 AM I wrote:
Seclusion is necessary, for 25% of our lives - since each of us do need time alone to reflect on their lives. To be in the presence of others for extended periods of time, one would have to give up a lot of privacy. As well, a highly socialized person would feel comfortable in the presence of other people.
However, a person who spends more than 50% of his time alone values his privacy. Of course, he is never alone totally since he will have to interact with merchants, his landlord, and even his own family.
Most likely, he may suffer from being alone, socially isolated from other people.
Overall, I wish to spend more time with people I have grown to love, and to learn to respect those of them who have caused me the most pain, since usually they turn out to be the most beloved of all the people to whom I have bonded.
Update: January 8, 2014 at 2006H
Few people can readily adapt to social isolation without suffering depression. I learned that knowing people care actually helped me recover.
Over the past decade, I have learned to respect my family.
It turns out that most the pain I attributed to my family was self-inflicted, being regret at not being able to live up to unrealistic expectations that arose in response to not being told what those expectations are.
Today, I have chosen one realistic expectation of myself, which is keep my expectations low enough to meet the demand of the day.
While most of my time is still spent alone, it is well spent outside the confines of my own home.
As a result, I feel that seclusion is time well spent being alone to reflect on my life. It also has become easier to spend the other 75% of my time in the presence of other people.
Even so, I only a little privacy over the past decade.
Of course, the lowest part of my life was circa 2010-2011. However, I have recovered from the worst of social isolation, which may have resulted in depression and much psychic pain, pain that affected my psyche to the point of procrastination and questioning my very existence.
After a year of therapy, the most important inspiration came from my psychotherapist when he told me, "You would never go to the Emergency Ward suffering from a complete mental breakdown." I interpret this to mean that I would take care of myself to prevent depression from taking over my life completely.
Indeed, once free from therapy, my life has been improving slowly but surely. Today, I know how to cope with sitting in my room by spending my time online, writing a blog, making music, and reading.
As well, I meditate from time to time, according to my time schedule, especially when spending time online. Every ninety minutes or so, I either meditate, have a snack, or read a book.
At the moment, I am in recovery from depression. This means I have developed the skills needed to cope with life, along with proper sleep hygiene (in bed no later than 2 AM), regular exercise, and meditation.
Today, it's not 2010 anymore. It's 2014, and the year has only begun.
And I am thankful to all the friends I made along the way.
Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label privacy. Show all posts
20130322
Terms of Service Lead Me to Practice Self-Censorship
Any privacy complaints leads to one email where a social media provider will state their decision to terminate your account without stating who complained. This is to protect the anonymity of the complainant. If you admit wrongdoing then you get banned. If you apologize and promise not to violate the Terms of Service again then you may not get banned.
I don't think this as unfair since a social media provider could easily charge members for this service, but they do not do so because advertisements covers for the costs of maintaining their social media.
So I don't have a problem with that.
Usually when the email arrives, the member has accumulated more than one complaint. I don't know at what point the people in charge decide to terminate a member's account. Such decisions are unanimous and final.
As an example, here is Google Plus' Suspension and Termination in their Terms of Service:
Google reserves the right to block or remove Google+ Pages that violate law, third party rights, the Google+ Pages Terms or if you are using Google+ Pages to violate or circumvent terms or policies for other Google products or services. Repeated violations of Google+ Pages Terms, may cause your Google+ account to be suspended or your entire Google account to be terminated, depending on the seriousness of the violation. Google may, without notice, remove your Google+ Pages if they are dormant for more than nine months.
Nowhere does GooglePlus have to notify any member who violates this policy. While it is arbitrary, it is a binding contract, and not reading it does not excuse violation of law and rights of others.
Having read their terms of service, I tend to engage in self-censorship when I know something I've posted violates the rights of other people. Certainly, this has also helped me to ensure any picture I take with the intent to post here will not violate the privacy rights of others.
After all, GooglePlus has the Creative Toolkit (the photo editor tool which can blur blur faces, though you would have to be experienced using it.
So it's time to review all my photos and pixelate faces and license plates. As well, I've been framing photos I currently take so that license plates do not show up and have been taking pictures in which people are more than 50 feet away.
Reference
Google Terms of Service: http://www.google.com/+/policy/pagesterm.html
I don't think this as unfair since a social media provider could easily charge members for this service, but they do not do so because advertisements covers for the costs of maintaining their social media.
So I don't have a problem with that.
Usually when the email arrives, the member has accumulated more than one complaint. I don't know at what point the people in charge decide to terminate a member's account. Such decisions are unanimous and final.
As an example, here is Google Plus' Suspension and Termination in their Terms of Service:
Google reserves the right to block or remove Google+ Pages that violate law, third party rights, the Google+ Pages Terms or if you are using Google+ Pages to violate or circumvent terms or policies for other Google products or services. Repeated violations of Google+ Pages Terms, may cause your Google+ account to be suspended or your entire Google account to be terminated, depending on the seriousness of the violation. Google may, without notice, remove your Google+ Pages if they are dormant for more than nine months.
Nowhere does GooglePlus have to notify any member who violates this policy. While it is arbitrary, it is a binding contract, and not reading it does not excuse violation of law and rights of others.
Having read their terms of service, I tend to engage in self-censorship when I know something I've posted violates the rights of other people. Certainly, this has also helped me to ensure any picture I take with the intent to post here will not violate the privacy rights of others.
After all, GooglePlus has the Creative Toolkit (the photo editor tool which can blur blur faces, though you would have to be experienced using it.
So it's time to review all my photos and pixelate faces and license plates. As well, I've been framing photos I currently take so that license plates do not show up and have been taking pictures in which people are more than 50 feet away.
Reference
Google Terms of Service: http://www.google.com/+/policy/pagesterm.html
20130318
Birthdates are optional on Google Plus
Nobody can do evil with your birthday as such a personal piece of info is only different from someone else with the same birthday as per date and time.
Thus we have a unique birthdate one out of 1,314,900 times, and even then when it's refined down to milliseconds, that only refines it to one out of 79 million.
However because it's usually tied to your name for ID purposes, it's vital information for corporations, as is your postal code.
Personally I prefer password protection as in banking: the two items are password for online access to your account and a real word password when accessing a teller at the bank. However, this is easily hacked by standing in line and eavesdropping. It's hard to do man-in-the middle attacks since their IT department suggested HTTPS to be the only acceptable protocol to access their resources online. The ID thief would have to install a keylogger on your personal computer, and thus would also be a friend, a spouse, or your drinking partner.
Even so, personal information is subject to privacy laws, and violating a person's privacy is worth at least a year sentence with six month on probation with a lifetime ban on owning technology that can text or otherwise transmit human readable data.
As well, the BYOD (bring your own device) policy in my province (BC Canada) will allow Internet bullies to be created c/o the State.
Thus, the State is placing at risk another girl like AmandaTodd to be groomed by a pervert and Internet bully.
Stop ID theft and Internet bullying! Limit the use of smartphones to minors 16 years or older!
Reference:
Internet troll and known online bully jailed for 41 months:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57574905-38/at-t-hacker-and-internet-troll-sentenced-to-over-three-years/
Thus we have a unique birthdate one out of 1,314,900 times, and even then when it's refined down to milliseconds, that only refines it to one out of 79 million.
However because it's usually tied to your name for ID purposes, it's vital information for corporations, as is your postal code.
Personally I prefer password protection as in banking: the two items are password for online access to your account and a real word password when accessing a teller at the bank. However, this is easily hacked by standing in line and eavesdropping. It's hard to do man-in-the middle attacks since their IT department suggested HTTPS to be the only acceptable protocol to access their resources online. The ID thief would have to install a keylogger on your personal computer, and thus would also be a friend, a spouse, or your drinking partner.
Even so, personal information is subject to privacy laws, and violating a person's privacy is worth at least a year sentence with six month on probation with a lifetime ban on owning technology that can text or otherwise transmit human readable data.
As well, the BYOD (bring your own device) policy in my province (BC Canada) will allow Internet bullies to be created c/o the State.
Thus, the State is placing at risk another girl like AmandaTodd to be groomed by a pervert and Internet bully.
Stop ID theft and Internet bullying! Limit the use of smartphones to minors 16 years or older!
Reference:
Internet troll and known online bully jailed for 41 months:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-57574905-38/at-t-hacker-and-internet-troll-sentenced-to-over-three-years/
20130311
Google Maps is Bad Enough
Back in 2007, people were concerned about cameras snapping pictures throughout Canadian cities for Google, citing privacy violation.
According to our federal privacy act, no one may take pictures in a public area of Canadian citizens.
However, every address in Canada can be viewed on Google Maps and that still has some privacy violations in itself.
If a person's address is given, then all it takes is another person to stake out the place until that person enters/exits the building to confirm the address.
Public institutions and other place of business are a different story since most public institutions are not legal citizens.
This may be why parts of Canada are highly accessible from Google Maps especially city centres while the suburbs are only accessible down to 250 meters per inch.
As well, the accuracy of map coördinates is within 50 metres.
Of course fine-tuning mapping software to accurately match physical addresses to map coördinates may compromise the privacy of Canadian citizens.
Although the mapping app for iPhone 5 was a bust, the accuracy of Google Maps is still bad enough as it is.
While Google Maps' may be off by 50 metres, this inaccuracy actually protects the Canadian privacy law.
Original post: October 10, 2007 0251H
Update posted: March 11, 2013 0033H
According to our federal privacy act, no one may take pictures in a public area of Canadian citizens.
However, every address in Canada can be viewed on Google Maps and that still has some privacy violations in itself.
If a person's address is given, then all it takes is another person to stake out the place until that person enters/exits the building to confirm the address.
Public institutions and other place of business are a different story since most public institutions are not legal citizens.
This may be why parts of Canada are highly accessible from Google Maps especially city centres while the suburbs are only accessible down to 250 meters per inch.
As well, the accuracy of map coördinates is within 50 metres.
Of course fine-tuning mapping software to accurately match physical addresses to map coördinates may compromise the privacy of Canadian citizens.
Although the mapping app for iPhone 5 was a bust, the accuracy of Google Maps is still bad enough as it is.
While Google Maps' may be off by 50 metres, this inaccuracy actually protects the Canadian privacy law.
Original post: October 10, 2007 0251H
Update posted: March 11, 2013 0033H
20130105
Yahoo Tracks Your Every Move Online
More details on yahoo.com are available at: http://www.privacychoice.org/trackerlist/index/67/
See http://collusion.toolness.org/ for details.
20121222
Canada Blocks GooglePlus Notifications
Since I've been a member of Google Plus, Canada is blocked from receiving Google+ updates via mobile text messaging due to Canada having issues with how Google uses that information. However, Google has already shown how transparent it is by appearing before Ottawa's privacy commission
Though Canada has a bigger issues with Twitter for not responding to Canada demand for transparency. Yet Canada is not blocked from receiving tweets from Twitter.
That's because tweets market a brand in 140 characters or less.
GooglePlus may have a bigger buffer area for marketing a channel be it Blogspot or Youtube.
Though Canada has a bigger issues with Twitter for not responding to Canada demand for transparency. Yet Canada is not blocked from receiving tweets from Twitter.
That's because tweets market a brand in 140 characters or less.
GooglePlus may have a bigger buffer area for marketing a channel be it Blogspot or Youtube.
20070913
CBC: Government moving to access personal info, sparking privacy fears
Date:Wednesday 12 September 2007 20:06
Government agencies are moving to gain access to telephone and internet customers' personal information without first getting a court order, according to a document obtained by CBCNews.ca that is raising privacy issues.
Complete Story
---
Here is what the government wants to do:
Public Safety Canada and Industry Canada have begun a consultation on how law enforcement and national security agencies can gain lawful access to customers' information. The information would include names, addresses, land and cellphone numbers, as well as additional mobile phone identification, such as a device serial number and a subscriber identity module (SIM) card number.
The consultation also seeks input on access to e-mail addresses and IP addresses. An IP address is a number that can be used to identify a computer's location.
Here is the online site that the government hastily added along with an extended deadline of October 12.
Government agencies are moving to gain access to telephone and internet customers' personal information without first getting a court order, according to a document obtained by CBCNews.ca that is raising privacy issues.
Complete Story
---
Here is what the government wants to do:
Public Safety Canada and Industry Canada have begun a consultation on how law enforcement and national security agencies can gain lawful access to customers' information. The information would include names, addresses, land and cellphone numbers, as well as additional mobile phone identification, such as a device serial number and a subscriber identity module (SIM) card number.
The consultation also seeks input on access to e-mail addresses and IP addresses. An IP address is a number that can be used to identify a computer's location.
Here is the online site that the government hastily added along with an extended deadline of October 12.
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