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Jan. 25th, 2005 09:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickYou know, I can go along for actual months without running into the fact that I'm a fucking alien amongst normal humans, and then something shoves it down my throat again with a vengeance. I will never, never understand normal people. *sigh*
This time it was an email from my cousin Beth. Beth is a normal person, works in some sort of counseling thing and helps families and kids to get their heads straight. She also runs marathons to defeat breast cancer, is raising two kids, and appears (by all reports) to be working toward a second marriage that everyone fully expects will be happier than the first. She lives in California.
Last night I got an email from my cousin Beth, which I don't get very many of. Her life and mine are not even remotely similar. We are very different people. We don't particularly talk because there's nothing much to talk about. But anyway. Here's the email I got:
Hi everyone, Please read this. I punched in few of your numbers and sure enough, directions to your house! My daughter is giving out her number
to anyone who will take it, so very scary if my number wasn't blocked. --Beth
----- Original Message ----- From: xxxxxxx@aol.com
To:XXXXXX@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 15:50
Subject: Privacy information
Google has implemented a new feature wherein you can type someone's telephone number into the search bar and hit enter and then you will be given a map to their house. Everyone should be aware of this! Note that you can have your phone number removed or blocked. Before forwarding this, I tested it by typing my telephone number in google.com. My phone number came up, and when I clicked on the MapQuest link, it actually mapped out where I live. Quite scary. Please look up your own number. Read below for details. Think about it--if a child, ANYONE gives out his/her phone number, someone can actually now look it up to find out where he/she lives. The safety issues are obvious, and alarming. In order to test whether your phone number is mapped, go to: http://www.google.com/ Type your phone number in the search bar (i.e., 555-555-1212) and hit enter. If you want to BLOCK Google from divulging your private information, simply click on the telephone icon or the "Phone results" link next to your phone number.
Removal takes 48-hours. If you are unlisted in the phone book, you might not be in there, but it is a good idea just to check. If your number does come up if you hit map, it will show you a direct map to your house... Please forward on to friends and family
So I wrote back, mostly because I saw this as a very Chicken-Little thing -- frequently people get all bent out of shape over things that always were public information but that are now just significantly easier because of computers. Look at credit cards over the internet. People don't want to "give out" their credit card information for an online purchase, but they're perfectly happy to call L.L. Bean's 1-800 number and hand over their credit card information there. How, precisely, is that different? The L.L. Bean phone operator person could rip off the plastic just as easily as the internet could. Just because it's technology, people get all worried and shit. I don't get it. I also don't particularly approve of rampantly forwarded fear-mongering emails because, damn it, we're not herd animals and there is no need to stampede, here.
My first mistake was that I wrote back. I should know better than to do this. I should fucking know better. But there I go, all thinking I'm a fucking human again. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I look like a human and I can make those interesting mouth-sounds like a human, but I am most assuredly not a human.
Seen it. No big deal.
Basically, most phone books have, since you and I were sprouts, listed a street address alongside the phone number. This isn't a NEW thing. People have been able to get your street address from your phone number (provided it's a listed phone number) for ages. The only thing that google is doing is making it easier to get to... all the pieces of information involved are public domain and have been for years.
Are people allowed to have access to maps showing accurate street addresses? Yes. Have been for years. This isn't Soviet Russia. Maps are very freely available.
Are people allowed to have access to phone books that match up phone number and address, for listed phone numbers? Yes. Phone books like that have been available since I was a child and still are available. You probably get one free for having a phone. I do.
Is there a pervasive, abiding interest in not applying the TRIVIAL amount of computing power needed to link up the databases of maps and phone numbers through the common denominator of street addresses? No.
Is there a fair amount of benefit to indexing street-address-maps to phone numbers? Yes. (Think not? 911.)
Take a couple of deep breaths and relax. If you have legitimate concerns on this front, due to a more visible public life or because you have small kids giving out your phone number, remove yourself from the list and/or get an unlisted phone number.
Otherwise, no biggie.
She wrote me back this morning, as follows: Jessica, I really didn't need the condescending reply. Yes, my number is already blocked... No, wait, to continue to justify my email to you would be defensive. If you don't need the info, freely delete it, or block my email address if you prefer. Beth
So now she's all pissed and stuff. Damn it. Honestly, I don't know why I bother. All you flesh people! Go away! Do not try to talk to me. It'll only upset us both when I try to explain that your insipid and well-intentioned Chicken-Little email is not disclosing a radical change in how the world works, only a matter of degree that we should expect because computers make accessing, sorting, and retrieving information easier and faster.
Hello!!! Is anyone fucking listening? But I'm the wrong one. I'm ALWAYS the wrong one. Go away, you flesh people.
I didn't reply. There's nothing I can say in response that she will believe. I was offering what I thought was pretty clearly a step-by-step explanation of how this isn't a world-shattering thing but a relatively trivial and expected outgrowth of already available stuff that we had no problem with being publicly available. And I'm condescending. *sigh* The only way I could be condescending is if she ALREADY KNEW all that stuff and I was telling to her like it was news that she clearly didn't understand.
But if she already KNEW that stuff like phone number<-->address and address<-->map existed, then why would she be getting so fucking bent out of shape over phone number<-->map? Given the first two, the third is not shocking. It's bloody obvious.
But she IS emailing it like it's news. So... she clearly didn't understand where phone number<-->map came from, how google could be offering SUCH A HORRIBLE THING. So I explained it. It's perfectly reasonable. Bloody obvious. Surprised we didn't have it sooner.
And now she's pissed. What the hell? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FLESH PEOPLE!
This time it was an email from my cousin Beth. Beth is a normal person, works in some sort of counseling thing and helps families and kids to get their heads straight. She also runs marathons to defeat breast cancer, is raising two kids, and appears (by all reports) to be working toward a second marriage that everyone fully expects will be happier than the first. She lives in California.
Last night I got an email from my cousin Beth, which I don't get very many of. Her life and mine are not even remotely similar. We are very different people. We don't particularly talk because there's nothing much to talk about. But anyway. Here's the email I got:
Hi everyone, Please read this. I punched in few of your numbers and sure enough, directions to your house! My daughter is giving out her number
to anyone who will take it, so very scary if my number wasn't blocked. --Beth
----- Original Message ----- From: xxxxxxx@aol.com
To:XXXXXX@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 15:50
Subject: Privacy information
Google has implemented a new feature wherein you can type someone's telephone number into the search bar and hit enter and then you will be given a map to their house. Everyone should be aware of this! Note that you can have your phone number removed or blocked. Before forwarding this, I tested it by typing my telephone number in google.com. My phone number came up, and when I clicked on the MapQuest link, it actually mapped out where I live. Quite scary. Please look up your own number. Read below for details. Think about it--if a child, ANYONE gives out his/her phone number, someone can actually now look it up to find out where he/she lives. The safety issues are obvious, and alarming. In order to test whether your phone number is mapped, go to: http://www.google.com/ Type your phone number in the search bar (i.e., 555-555-1212) and hit enter. If you want to BLOCK Google from divulging your private information, simply click on the telephone icon or the "Phone results" link next to your phone number.
Removal takes 48-hours. If you are unlisted in the phone book, you might not be in there, but it is a good idea just to check. If your number does come up if you hit map, it will show you a direct map to your house... Please forward on to friends and family
So I wrote back, mostly because I saw this as a very Chicken-Little thing -- frequently people get all bent out of shape over things that always were public information but that are now just significantly easier because of computers. Look at credit cards over the internet. People don't want to "give out" their credit card information for an online purchase, but they're perfectly happy to call L.L. Bean's 1-800 number and hand over their credit card information there. How, precisely, is that different? The L.L. Bean phone operator person could rip off the plastic just as easily as the internet could. Just because it's technology, people get all worried and shit. I don't get it. I also don't particularly approve of rampantly forwarded fear-mongering emails because, damn it, we're not herd animals and there is no need to stampede, here.
My first mistake was that I wrote back. I should know better than to do this. I should fucking know better. But there I go, all thinking I'm a fucking human again. Wrong, wrong, wrong. I look like a human and I can make those interesting mouth-sounds like a human, but I am most assuredly not a human.
Seen it. No big deal.
Basically, most phone books have, since you and I were sprouts, listed a street address alongside the phone number. This isn't a NEW thing. People have been able to get your street address from your phone number (provided it's a listed phone number) for ages. The only thing that google is doing is making it easier to get to... all the pieces of information involved are public domain and have been for years.
Are people allowed to have access to maps showing accurate street addresses? Yes. Have been for years. This isn't Soviet Russia. Maps are very freely available.
Are people allowed to have access to phone books that match up phone number and address, for listed phone numbers? Yes. Phone books like that have been available since I was a child and still are available. You probably get one free for having a phone. I do.
Is there a pervasive, abiding interest in not applying the TRIVIAL amount of computing power needed to link up the databases of maps and phone numbers through the common denominator of street addresses? No.
Is there a fair amount of benefit to indexing street-address-maps to phone numbers? Yes. (Think not? 911.)
Take a couple of deep breaths and relax. If you have legitimate concerns on this front, due to a more visible public life or because you have small kids giving out your phone number, remove yourself from the list and/or get an unlisted phone number.
Otherwise, no biggie.
She wrote me back this morning, as follows: Jessica, I really didn't need the condescending reply. Yes, my number is already blocked... No, wait, to continue to justify my email to you would be defensive. If you don't need the info, freely delete it, or block my email address if you prefer. Beth
So now she's all pissed and stuff. Damn it. Honestly, I don't know why I bother. All you flesh people! Go away! Do not try to talk to me. It'll only upset us both when I try to explain that your insipid and well-intentioned Chicken-Little email is not disclosing a radical change in how the world works, only a matter of degree that we should expect because computers make accessing, sorting, and retrieving information easier and faster.
Hello!!! Is anyone fucking listening? But I'm the wrong one. I'm ALWAYS the wrong one. Go away, you flesh people.
I didn't reply. There's nothing I can say in response that she will believe. I was offering what I thought was pretty clearly a step-by-step explanation of how this isn't a world-shattering thing but a relatively trivial and expected outgrowth of already available stuff that we had no problem with being publicly available. And I'm condescending. *sigh* The only way I could be condescending is if she ALREADY KNEW all that stuff and I was telling to her like it was news that she clearly didn't understand.
But if she already KNEW that stuff like phone number<-->address and address<-->map existed, then why would she be getting so fucking bent out of shape over phone number<-->map? Given the first two, the third is not shocking. It's bloody obvious.
But she IS emailing it like it's news. So... she clearly didn't understand where phone number<-->map came from, how google could be offering SUCH A HORRIBLE THING. So I explained it. It's perfectly reasonable. Bloody obvious. Surprised we didn't have it sooner.
And now she's pissed. What the hell? I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FLESH PEOPLE!
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Date: 2005-01-25 03:11 pm (UTC)The only solution is to, in place of the ordinary morning commute, force everyone to navigate a maze filled with lethal traps which can be avoided only by successfully solving logic puzzles. The only people who avoid this are those bright enough to get telecommuting jobs, who clearly don't need our help anyway.