Reply to post: Re: I just don't care.

Re: I just don't care.

But that's as it's always been: all the way back to the days of the village gossip. You can't control what other people know about you, especially that gleaned from their own senses.

1) "Village gossip" was very seldom compiled and built into a profile on people.

2) This isn't stuff they've gleaned from their own senses - it's often stuff they've gleaned via illegal means (eg in Simon's post RE other people giving FB their email login - where this is a company and they've allowed FB to get other people's addresses, this is an offence under many countries' privacy laws including NZ's laws - if a business has given my details to others other than as a part of the actual trading (eg the firm that sent me a re-furb laptop from Auckland giving the courier my delivery address) then they've committed an offence under the act.

Some of this info has been gained by criminal means. In my case, where FB, Google, almost every advertising company and any data harvesting company, my information has not been legally gained. I have not consented to give it, I have not consented for it to be retained, I have not been properly informed as to what is gathered, how it is gathered, how it is to be used or who it is to be shared with. It doesn't matter if it's a supermarket I have a loyalty card with (I don't) or a site I sign up to or any of that, the information has not been gained in accordance with NZ law thus has not been legally gained. EG wth the supermarket, I can grab the loyalty card over the counter and start using it there and then for "savings". I've not been given a chance to view the T&Cs etc nor even told such a thing exists. When I pay by EFT-POS it's tied to my bank account, thus personally identifying information is not shared with a 3rd party (and more) whom I don't know exists. Data sharing starts before I actually get a chance to make an informed decision, and I am encouraged to give up that data without being warned to read the information first - I'm not even told there is info to read.

This stuff is done illegally and why should I not object to people using unlawful methods to get unlawful data about me?

And yes, my friends volunteering information would also come under this as I have not consented to that data being held. Hmm, I wonder.. Think I might see a lawyer this week... (sadly I'll probably forget - but anyone in NZ who has FB friends, or android-using friends who txt you, or who don't use android but txt you where their telco might harvest the txts - you might be able to make a case for suing under the act since you did not consent to that information being held about you nor were you informed it was being collected!)