A quick scan of my Google account reveals that I have granted access to 49 different websites. AND I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT MOST OF THEM ARE, OR WHAT PERMISSIONS I GAVE THEM.
Okay, at the risk of sounding arrogant, you have no rights to complain if you give out permission to 50 different websites without knowing what they do. You cannot complain that you are being exploited, when you allow yourself to be exploited. My google account is linked to fifteen different sites which I know what they are all for.
go check your inbox for an “Invitation to connect on LinkedIn”. They don’t come from @linkedin.com, which THEY ABSOLUTELY SHOULD
Again, you gave them the permission to do so. And to play the devil's advocate, would you be less* likely to accept an invitation from your friend if he sent you an e-mail from some foreign account, or his account of which you are familiar? Again, you gave them the permission. If you don't like it, just make a linkedIn account without a connection to Google account. You've not done so because connecting to Google is convenient. You are paying a fair price.
I get minimal number of e-mails from linkedIn because I didn't give them permission to send me every gritty details of other people. It does exactly what I told it to. Maybe you should as well.
Agreed. This is promiscuous behavior. One should occasionally check out their Google dashboard and see what's going on. A few times a year, I check out what has permission via my Google account and deactivate anything that I haven't used in awhile or no longer care about.
wrt your first point you are absolutely 100% right, and I said so in the article. I agree that failing to manage my login permissions exposes me to problems. But a system that makes it this easy for people to get screwed is a bad system. In my case the only downside is that I get annoying emails - but giving inbox permissions on fb or email exposes you to huuuuuge problems. People keep all kind of things there that they shouldn't - passwords, I'll bet you have ten friends with their social security or all kinds of PHI in their gmail. In my case I take responsibility for the silly emails I get because of it. I also go through fb and google permissions and cull them, but that is not always enough, especially if you're facing a malicious site. But my problem isn't how this affects me, it's how it affects users who don't understand the danger here - which is most people. Some people think the answer is either "everyone learns to code or everyone loses control/rights", but I think that doesn't make sense. You don't expect everyone who drives to fix their cars themselves, and when one breaks and hurts them you don't mock them for their carelessness in getting such a complicated piece of equipment (I hope). We always abstract complexity away from new technology so that it can be used conveniently and safely, which is great. In the same way I think people building complicated web tools should do so responsibly, so that their users don't expose themselves to problems by using them. You don't have to abuse access permissions to make a great tool, and I'm willing to bet that these controls will get more and more tightly controlled to keep things like this from happening. That's exactly what happened to Facebook's messaging api, which no longer permits developers to problematically send messages, to prevent spam.
Nope! It's easier to complain about it online! #angry #omg #whyisthishappeningtome?!?!
I love the internets, technology and how we've progressed at an amazing rate. I also like how everyone has a voice, but at the same time...that part isn't always as shiny.
I agree with your post 100%!
Comments
Okay, at the risk of sounding arrogant, you have no rights to complain if you give out permission to 50 different websites without knowing what they do. You cannot complain that you are being exploited, when you allow yourself to be exploited. My google account is linked to fifteen different sites which I know what they are all for.
Again, you gave them the permission to do so. And to play the devil's advocate, would you be less* likely to accept an invitation from your friend if he sent you an e-mail from some foreign account, or his account of which you are familiar? Again, you gave them the permission. If you don't like it, just make a linkedIn account without a connection to Google account. You've not done so because connecting to Google is convenient. You are paying a fair price.
I get minimal number of e-mails from linkedIn because I didn't give them permission to send me every gritty details of other people. It does exactly what I told it to. Maybe you should as well.
Agreed. This is promiscuous behavior. One should occasionally check out their Google dashboard and see what's going on. A few times a year, I check out what has permission via my Google account and deactivate anything that I haven't used in awhile or no longer care about.
wrt your first point you are absolutely 100% right, and I said so in the article. I agree that failing to manage my login permissions exposes me to problems. But a system that makes it this easy for people to get screwed is a bad system. In my case the only downside is that I get annoying emails - but giving inbox permissions on fb or email exposes you to huuuuuge problems. People keep all kind of things there that they shouldn't - passwords, I'll bet you have ten friends with their social security or all kinds of PHI in their gmail. In my case I take responsibility for the silly emails I get because of it. I also go through fb and google permissions and cull them, but that is not always enough, especially if you're facing a malicious site. But my problem isn't how this affects me, it's how it affects users who don't understand the danger here - which is most people. Some people think the answer is either "everyone learns to code or everyone loses control/rights", but I think that doesn't make sense. You don't expect everyone who drives to fix their cars themselves, and when one breaks and hurts them you don't mock them for their carelessness in getting such a complicated piece of equipment (I hope). We always abstract complexity away from new technology so that it can be used conveniently and safely, which is great. In the same way I think people building complicated web tools should do so responsibly, so that their users don't expose themselves to problems by using them. You don't have to abuse access permissions to make a great tool, and I'm willing to bet that these controls will get more and more tightly controlled to keep things like this from happening. That's exactly what happened to Facebook's messaging api, which no longer permits developers to problematically send messages, to prevent spam.
Nope! It's easier to complain about it online! #angry #omg #whyisthishappeningtome?!?!
I love the internets, technology and how we've progressed at an amazing rate. I also like how everyone has a voice, but at the same time...that part isn't always as shiny. I agree with your post 100%!