Yes the corporate world has been doing what Uncle Sam is not allowed to do. Why should this bother anyone.
You would think this is not a big deal and if you listen to what they say, it’s not. But what the fail to tell you is not current use of the data, but future use and future possibilities of hacks and the unknown of what will someone do with the info in future.
Please allow me to give you a live example of my own personal experience and this would be just one of many in the last 5 years. First I should tell you I have nearly limitless email addresses that I use for security purposes (to know when this kind of stuff happens).
I was astounded when I received a email from Apple wanting me to participate in a survey of customer experience with the Apple iTunes Store. First I thought it was a spoof/Phishing email so I investigated the full header of the email and then proceeded to look at where the links in it went to.
Sure enough, it is a genuine Apple email. I did not legitimize the email (encoded with a service number that represents “ME”) by clicking the link within but went to the site and looked for the survey.
So whats the problem ? The problem here is I have never used that email address with any Apple products or services and/or correspondence with that company. I do know that they obtained a different email from PayPal when I bought FREE apps from the iTunes store. No monetary transaction but the info was still shared without my knowledge.
So why should this bother me?
It is just a small picture of a even larger image. None of the company’s that have your information, many who have shared it with many unknown “affiliates” can keep the information secure. So I am willing to bet there are folks out there, legit and not, who will find the info a great value to resell. When a company goes belly-up who guards it then? Why can’t they tell me who AFFILIATES ARE ! And exactly what and who they share it with and when. And if they are allowed to SHARE this info and with whom?
Don’t believe me….
Well last year, I was able to go to the Chinese version of our eBay and actually bid on my own Apple iTunes account information.
I am tired of my information being shared with affiliates who are not bound to me to keep it safe and secure. In fact, I will never know who they are and to top it off, who are their affiliates they might share it with. The more places it is stored, the more chances for a hack.
Well back to the original problem of this message from apple. They shared it with the company responsible for taking it.
Here is the fine print from the page and the page itself.
”
You must be 15 years of age or older to participate. Apple has contracted Medallia, an independent marketing research firm, to conduct this survey. Your responses will remain strictly confidential. If you need assistance, please click here.
”
Apparently, Medallia had the email address and associated with me and my iTunes account.
Just remember that information about you can be used to look how the holder of it wants it to look and while the government can not do what these company’s can, the Government can subpoena the info being held if they know it exists. I just have this paranoia that when I am falsely accused of something, It will be some FBI agents job to get a conviction and they don’t care how they slander you to look like a bad person, they just do it. So all those pages you may have stumbled on by accident become an issue. Please remember this if you ever sit on a jury about to judge someones guilt based partly on where and how they surfed the web.
And how will this affect you credit worthiness if you are to be judged by what you might do as Credit Agency’s now have patents on software to do just that. It is unknown to me if they are actually using it.
The unfunny thing is that the survey email “was not sent to my account on file” with Apple iTunes or the one they nabbed from my PayPal account or the one on file shared with AT&T.
Most of this info in the sort term will be used by those unsavory folks who will target you/trick you into clicking from that email and giving up account info or worse virus / malware planting to obtain all your account info and web browsing data.
One piece of advice… Don’t use your friends/relatives email to correspond with anyone as they might be emailed data in the future that could lead to accounts being compromised from their computers.
Need I remind you that the following fortune 500 company’s have had large scale hacking in the last few years. Google (multiple times), American Express, Sony (playstation live accounts), Apple, MasterCard and other popular sites like Zappo’s Just to mention a few from the top of my head!
Google has the worst and terrible way of linking accounts that makes one breach a multiple breach. Since I have muti accounts with youtube/adsence/analytics/code/gmail/chat/voice and more, one breach can give access to all my accounts even though I use separate email addresses and seperate passwords for each account, they link them together.
I received a letter from American Express a few days ago telling me that my account had been compromised. UN-Funny thing is that account was cancelled over 7 years ago so there you can see how long this stuff stays around. Of cource they tell me my SSN was not compromised but its NOT a measured assessment that I can trust ! You already lied to me telling me it was safe and secure and now you tell me SSN was not compromised…. who can believe that now.
Just remember this, Today someone can tell you their system is the most secure system in the world and that does not make it 100% and even if it were, tomorrow is a new day with a new set of rules in data security.
