Does having a security device reduce sales?

[Darrius Gothly]

 

---

Monavie Voight wrote:

... We are scanned every place we go ...

---

 

The primary difference, IMO, is that what Facebook (and other such social networks) provide to those third party businesses are the things you place on their Service. You uploaded it first, you entered it first, you *gave* it to them to use .. thus they use it.

But the latest uproar over RedZone and similar systems is they use a TRICK to take information from you. They exploit a security hole in what had been a very enjoyable experience (media playback) and use it to extract private information from you.

If that's not bad enough, they then use this stolen info to infer a connection between private accounts on SL. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong ... but they *claim* they are absolutely correct and thus take permanent actions AND tell everyone in their user base that their wrong decision is actually correct. They are lying and they know it.

It's not the scanning per se Monavie .. it's the combination of having private info stolen, distributed to others without permission or transparency, and the insistence that their failures are not failures.

[Toysoldier Thor]

Once again Darrius.... you nailed it.  That would have been my response.

So many ppl use this argument of "whats the big deal - you are probed, scanned, spied upon, monitored all the time without explicit consent".  If I am brave enough and dumb enough or dont give too hoots to upload all my personal information into FACEBOOK - then basically I have provided very clear intent that I am offering my private personal information for the service to do with what they want (well within limits - as so many Facebook users have absolutely no clue how their personal information is harvested and used in ways they dont even realize).

BUT... as Darrius said, these SL scanning tools are doing it by exploiting a security weakness and in the shadows of secrecy.  The RZ USERS / CUSTOMERS prove how immoral and underhanded it is when they beg and plead and hope that it doesnt get out that they have deployed it.  One Club/Mall owner told me she is not hiding anything and is proud to be running RZ - so I asked her.... WHERE IS YOUR TP POINT SIGN telling all those that arrive "this is a REDZONE sim and your avatar will be scanned for its IP by an external individual/service to determine your ALT list"?   No response.

Mr. Humble said it right in an interview - a major reason SL is popular is because of a RL person's ability to maintain his/her anonimity in the SL virtual world.  Well... RZ slaps Rod Humble right in the face and puts a bullet in Rod's major Success Factor.

Why do you think that LL is taking such completely RARE actions as actually listening to its customer base this time and taking strong (if not 100% effective) actions to shut down RZ?  Not because they are listening SL Residents - they rarely have in the past.  They are doing it because RZ flies completely in the Face of a very powerful statement made by Rod Humble...

ANONYMITY IS CRITICAL TO SL's SUCCESS !

[Vania Chaplin]

Here, in Brazil, if a store or such have security cams, they must have in a visible place at the entrance, a warning sign - "sorria, você está sendo filmado" = "smile, you are being filmed" being the most common ( http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_pbNcAWitH3I/Sbu4BxOWnQI/AAAAAAAAAPE/W06PObJ7PJ4/s320/sorria_voce_esta_sendo_filmado.jpg ). You cannot avoid being filmed if you enter such places, but you can choose to not enter those places

[TW Fierrens]

---

Monavie Voight wrote:

I'll be honest that I'm not familiar at all with the security devices mentioned. I read all of the comments. I wonder what is so different in SL? One comment was about being scanned without consent. We are scanned every place we go (in the usa) without our consent. We are watched at street lights and scanned for security purposes. I don't think it's right, but it's being done. So what is the difference? Is it because SL is thought to be able to be a 'utopian' world so peeps don't want anything to bust their bubble inworld? I don't get it. Facebook is linked with so many businesses that if you are buying something at some internet store next time you go into facebook your store, and even the item you purchased, will be popping up in your ads on your home page and wall. Talk about evasion. How many people in here use ANY applications in facebook, for example, (not to pick on facebook alone)? Every application you accept you are giving them 100% access to your most private information, pictures, comments, etc. to be used at their discretion without any required future permissions from you. There is no such thing as not being 'plugged' in unless you live as a hermit somewhere, and even then, there's someone watching you...

---

To answer your comment about not understanding and what the big deal is. The scanners are collecting your avatar name with your ip address and collating it with other avatar names that have used the same IP address.  Then it is reselling your IP address and name(s) to anyone who has about $20 USD.  What is the big deal 1) revealing Alts unless  you do it is a Linden Labs TOS infringement. 2) data mining is theft of your privacy, its along the lines of somone using a card reader to swipe your purse/wallet when you walk in to record: name, address, credit card number and any other information gathered from your electronic striped cards  ((

))  3) using Geolocation programs stalkers can end up at your doorstep  ((http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geolocation))   4)  people who buy Redzone are given an opt out ability.  (that means its extortion to get you to buy if you dont want your information made public at worst  and that users of Redzone will not subject themselves to same tactis they subject customers too. 

This is not the same as traffic cams and store cameras.  They are not putting your license plate number with your name in a database then reselling that information to anyone while keeping thier own information out.  As for websites like facebook, they are not reselling your ip address with email to other companies and individuals unless you consent.  The whole concept is not about IP mining, it is about data mining (matching your ip with other data and reselling your information without your consent)   Another post mentioned saver cards, again the individual filled out an application which they probably did not read and agreed to have their information resold.