Posted by alexandra_k2 on December 13, 2005, at 21:56:46
In reply to Re: the best available online privacy » pseudoname, posted by alexandra_k2 on December 13, 2005, at 20:57:27
okay.
so here goes...
i post from work because i don't have internet access at home. over here there simply isn't any free internet access except a limited amount in schools (where it is of course monitered by teachers). you are charged for your usage at the library and where i am you can only use the internet at the main library (to the best of my knowledge) which is a fair hike away. yeah, there are lots of internet cafe's but they charge by the hour and it is fairly expensive.so i post from work.
and what i have noticed...
is that every user login has a separate file. i only have access to the file that is associated with my login. i go in there and try to clear my cookies and there is this little document or whatever called 'index'. i can view it and what it seems to be... is a record of my entire history. every single link i've followed. i can view that but when i go to delete it it says 'you must have administrator access to modify / delete this document' or something along those lines.so...
people with administrator access (that probably means staff in the department who have some administrator priveledges associated with their login) and the wonderful people over at information technology support have access to my entire access history.
if they decided to follow the links...
well, there are pages and pages and pages and pages of babble links, of course. also... i do tend to follow the link to my new post. so a fair few of those links are to my posts. and yeah, because i've been stupid enough to post a lot of the things i've posted it is just oh so easy for them to figure out who i am. really wouldn't take them very long at all.and there it is.
i don't know whether all work situations do this...
i don't know whether all universities do this...but what i do know is that if people find out who i am then it gives them a bit of a predicament.
when they are requested to write me an anonymous referee report / reference and they are asked specificially 'do you know of anything that may affect the candidates ability to complete or whatever...' and 'do you have any reservations about the candidates ability to complete or whatever...' then i suppose they have a choice... they can keep their trap shut or they can be honest.
not a nice position to be in.
and yeah, it is my own fault, i appreciate that.
but how much safer would i feel in knowing that when they follow my access history they will be slapped with 'access denied'? a whole heap safer that is what. a whole heap safer.
poster:alexandra_k2
thread:523081
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20051205/msgs/588812.html