This just got upgraded from Twitter rant to blog rant. I saw MN’s post about the new feature for the upcoming fall update for the XBOX360. So basically — they are giving away personal information — by default, oh and if you want you can turn this off. It’s funny they take lengths to protect childens information, but the rest of us? Meh - you’re on your own.
This makes me mad - however not because of it’s DIRECT impact on me. I can easily fix this by going to the site and changing my status to BLOCKED. However, How many of the MILLIONS of XBL subscribers read the blogs? How many of them fully understand the potential security implications of this problem on a mass scale? How many of my friends are going to leave their profiles totally open, which could INDIRECTLY reveal my information?
Right now you’re probably saying “So what? who cares! it’s just your gamertag, big f’in deal!” True, but what about when some toolbox makes this same maneuver with more important data? This reminds me of when LinkedIn announced its upcoming “me-too” plans for a facebookish API. What if I didn’t read Techcrunch/Mashable, when would they decide to tell me they planned on potentially giving developers open access to my resume/CV information?
Why do these people make it our responsibility to ensure any new things they bring down the pipe is in perfect alignment with the terms of what we signed up for? If they insist on changing the deal and opening up our information, why can’t it be opt-in by default?
Imagine if Microsoft rolled out IIS via a critical update in Vista and enabled ALL of its features like in XP PRO. Then imagine they said “oh hey listen, don’t get mad, its not a big deal, you can just go and disable it by right clicking my computer…”. Yea right! The nerd-brigade would be out for blood. So why are the masses concerned about open ports yet not open information?
This makes me not want to leave any personal information lingering online anymore. What’s safe now could be wide open tomorrow unless I check on it constantly for “optional security settings”. And now that every site has some sort of social graph, my apathetic friends can affect my privacy too.
