Do we really have any privacy on the Web anyway?
9 to 5 Mac reports that the iPhone has a hidden feature which sends a user’s IMEI number (the phone’s unique identifier), IP address and Stock quote preferences among other things through a hidden string to Apple via the Weather and Stock applications. Though there are other rumors that the iPhone only sends application specific data but not personal data, it raises some questions about online privacy.
Should I be concerned? Yes and No! Ok, if you are surfing porn on your iPhone, perhaps you might want to rethink that idea. Supposedly, a number of people are deleting the Stocks and Weather Applications from their iPhone. I’m not! The way I see it, Apple collects your personal data when you activate the iPhone. Chances are, they have quite some information about you already. Granted it is an invasion of your privacy, to some extent, but even if they don’t collect information this way, there are several different ways to connect your personal information with your online habits: Server Logs, Cookies, etc.
Is there any such thing as online privacy? Think about it, most web sites collect information about you every time you visit the site: your IP Address, Operating System, Timestamp, Web Browser, etc. In most cases, they will go right ahead (without your permission) and set a cookie on your computer to track your online habits.
Leslie Walker has a really good article on how much information Google potentially knows about us. It collects information about us, through its personalized search service, Gmail, Orkut, iGoogle, YouTube, etc. O, hold on! Wait a minute! As if that is not enough, OpenSocial will make it even worse. Google can now, quite conveniently, tap into, probably, all the personal data you have listed on other social networking sites (on the OpenSocial train) — that is, if you elect to use an OpenSocial application.
The proliferation of Social Networking sites along with Widgets and Gadgets makes it even worse. For example, if you have a Facebook account, not only does Facebook have access to all your personal information and intimate habits within their web site, but more importantly, for every Facebook Application you install on your profile, the developer(s) who designed the application (not Facebook) “auto-magically” gain access to all of this information.
This means, if I want more intimate information about a group of people, I (as a web developer) can probably create a very compelling Facebook Application and wait for my “prey” to install it on their profile. Question is, will you rather a stranger like me, collect your private information, or a more reputable company like Apple? Then again, how hard is it for me to create a web scraping application which goes out, logs in and reads (and even tracks) all the information posted on my MySpace and/or Facebook friends’ profiles?
Bottom line? We all have to be careful of what kind of information we put out there. Some of these Web 2.0 sites are created in a hurry. The barriers of entry are almost next to nothing and the fierce competition demands a shorter (more ‘agile’) time-to-market period. Who is to say that your password or sensitive information is even stored in an encrypted format. Some regulation on how and what kind of information can be stored by web services may or may not do us any good.
So the real question is: will I ditch my iPhone now? Of course not 
I will rather delete my social networking accounts or perhaps my GMail account first! Maybe, I will stay away from any web site which has any kind of personalization feature too. I think not! The truth is, you own and manage your own personal data, so do some personal data management while you still can!
