Hello, I’m Cliff Hatch, an independent consultant and Technology Executive in my day (and sometimes night) job . Thanks for stopping by my personal site, here I store odds and ends on my interests, some technical, some not.
FAQ
Got a Facebook page? – Nope. Why not? It’s really cool, you would like it! Part of my job deals with information security, both corporate and personal. While Facebook offers some interesting tools for staying in touch with friends and family, I believe the tradeoff on the resulting loss of privacy, as well as the loss of control over your own information is unacceptable.
I have also noticed, with our increasing dependence on modern technology, we have started to grow more and more isolated from one another. I prefer to sit down to a meal with friends and family, or go out and do things together rather than posting information on a virtual wall.
Well surely you are on Linkedin, right? You’re a technology executive… No again, and this one more directly relates to my point above. About 10 years ago Linkedin got into a bit of trouble over using an Microsoft Outlook upload tool that took ALL of a new users contacts and loaded them in the Linkedin database, which were then made available online.
I had a third party vendor inadvertently post my information to Linkedin. When this started showing on searches, I contacted Linkedin and asked them to remove me from their database, as I had not signed up for the service. They replied back that I need to sign up with their service and then I could remove my information. The short version of the story concludes with Linkedin removing my contact information after I filed a formal complaint with their privacy watchdog site. I understand they have gotten better about their privacy policies, but they are still subject to change at any time. Update- as of Late 2013, still a problem.
Rather than go on about online privacy and safety, let me show you firsthand what I am talking about. Go to Zaba Search and plug in your information, or a relative’s data. Or try Intelius. Bet you did not submit your information to their database- but they are selling it. What if this information was used to find and older relative who lives alone? An abused spouse by an angry ex? I can see value in the service (employee background checks for positions of trust, babysitters, etc) provided it was carefully monitored. It is not, if you have a credit card you can find information on pretty much anyone, for any purpose. That just does not sit well with me. If you would like to pull your information off the internet, here’s a good article for opting out from the Consumerist. Of course I should probably warn you that they will collect the information again, especially if you post it online. 🙂
How about Twitter? I like Twitter, I think it is a great resource for breaking news and short updates. Don’t really have the time, but if I do sign up in the future I’ll post a link here.
Okay, so how do I contact you? You can try me on the business contact page.