The other day I posted a slightly creepy little number about being able to find out quite a lot about a complete stranger with only a few clues and a regular, medium-speed Internet connection and a home computer. That post, completely innocuous though it was, sparked a few interesting responses, and really made me think about how it is people can profess to care passionately about something (in this case, privacy) and yet totally take it for granted.

I wrote my piece, shared the link (as I always do) to FaceBook and Twitter.  The piece was picked up by a couple of my Twitter followers and retweeted, and it was commented on by a couple of my FaceBook friends.

Funny thing, the only negative comment came from someone who does not follow me on either of those sites, and could only have seen the post by “creeping” me online. And now I find myself in a bit of a Privacy Inception Pickle.  In short: is it fair that I get flack about invading someone’s privacy, by someone invading my privacy?

“But wait!”. Don’t worry, dear reader, I can hear you from here.  Everything that I wrote about and shared is all public domain. I didn’t “hack” anything or anyone, and I didn’t, actually, post any private or even personal information. And this brings me back to the original point of the original post…. Don’t assume that your information is in any way private anymore. And, maybe, if I point that out in a venue completely devoid of malice, maybe some good learning will result (for me as much as anyone)