The Canadian Privacy Law Blog: Developments in privacy law and writings of a Canadian privacy lawyer, containing information related to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (aka PIPEDA) and other Canadian and international laws.

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The author of this blog, David T.S. Fraser, is a Canadian privacy lawyer who practices with the firm of McInnes Cooper. He is the author of the Physicians' Privacy Manual. He has a national and international practice advising corporations and individuals on matters related to Canadian privacy laws.

For full contact information and a brief bio, please see David's profile.

Please note that I am only able to provide legal advice to clients. I am not able to provide free legal advice. Any unsolicited information sent to David Fraser cannot be considered to be solicitor-client privileged.

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The views expressed herein are solely the author's and should not be attributed to his employer or clients. Any postings on legal issues are provided as a public service, and do not constitute solicitation or provision of legal advice. The author makes no claims, promises or guarantees about the accuracy, completeness, or adequacy of the information contained herein or linked to. Nothing herein should be used as a substitute for the advice of competent counsel.

This web site is presented for informational purposes only. These materials do not constitute legal advice and do not create a solicitor-client relationship between you and David T.S. Fraser. If you are seeking specific advice related to Canadian privacy law or PIPEDA, contact the author, David T.S. Fraser.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Don't tell the world where you aren't

There's a lot of power in social media, but many tweet or update their status withouth thinking about what they are telling the world. This issue is especially acute when it comes to location-based information. If you're telling the world you're at your local Starbucks, you're telling everyone that you're not at home. Burglars may be interested in that, if they can match your tweets with your home address. A new website, Please Rob Me, vividly illustrates the issue. See also: Please Rob Me Makes Foursquare Super Useful For Burglars.

2/19/2010 12:30:00 AM :: (2 comments) :: Backlinks

Comments:

A shift in our society has occurred the past few years. We have gone from fearing the security of the internet to anything/everything goes, your nobody unless everything about you is transparent. There is little to no digital hygiene that is of any concern with many of the nets younger users. This is all they have known since High School, so it must be safe, secure, and no problem. I don’t know where this all nets out for privacy and society. Caution is still necessary, storage is unlimited and cheap and everything is connected.

# posted by

nexttolastblog : February 19, 2010 3:44 PM

Hey David, I just spent the weekend at Pod Camp in Toronto, and this was a topic that was discussed by a few people. This is one of those things that people need to be much more aware of. Even worse if you put together the Please Rob me concept with a simple twitter search for lets say New purchases, or Laptops, Ibooks ect. You may even be creating a shopping list and a potential ROI could be taken into account that could make you a larger target. Maybe there should be some type of class regarding internet privacy that is taught as a intermediate or highschool manditory class where we can slowly ensure at the very least new social network users are aware of how this type of information can be used against you.