At Gilded Pendulum, we have a social networking presence, but that's really about as far as it goes. We're a tech firm, and ergo we know how technology works. We know what it's doing behind the scenes and we know the dangers inherent therein. Whether you're an individual or a business entity like us, at the end of the day we're just part of a gigantic data cluster. With the current internet landscape, (I'm referring to the clearnet) free services are in the business of removing your privacy in exchange to become a part of the network. Privacy policies are more in place to remove your privacy, then protect it. Terms of use spell out in legaleeze how this is done, but it's so convoluted I don't know anyone that actually reads them. How do free companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter rake in billions of dollars a year? Well, it is true that they do sell certain services for people that buy them, but they're getting rich off of having millions of people's personal information stored in their database. Retailers and other companies purchase this information for their own personal demographic of possible customers, the owners of the database make a killing , and you already agreed to it in the terms of service . But that's not all.

TOTAL. INFORMATION. AWARENESS.

Since the passing of the patriot act, the government has gone to great lengths to collect every single piece of data that passes through the clearnet. The clearnet is what the majority of people use. It includes sites like google, facebook, twitter, cnn, yahoo, youtube, etc. When someone does something as simple as send an email from the their web address, it passes through a data center for inspection and is then moved to it's end destination. But that's not all. It links banking activities, flight searches, shopping preferences, all the way to online interactions with others. This type of infrastructure has the very real way of grabbing information on any American for any reason, providing they use the internet. Does that seem like a bit of an over reach? It should. There's no reason that every single internet user in this country and even others, needs their information collected and stored on a server somewhere, but it's happening. And companies like Google, Facebook, and many other sites that offer a social interacting experience have been lobbying for years in Washington AGAINST privacy for their users because it would disrupt their business models. Free isn't always better.

So don't assume that you're just posting your personal information to Facebook, no big deal. Don't assume that anything you put online won't be available in the next ten years even after you delete it. Trust me, it hasn't gone anywhere except into a searchable database somewhere else. Things like first and last names, birth dates, where you live, where you work, what you drive, where you go to vacation are all viewable and searchable by three letter agencies and even more sinister entities (if you can believe that). Companies will often times put more information than is needed onto social media as well giving would be hackers and other digital thieves more knowledge of how to possibly extract their critical information. Our advice at Gilded Pendulum is two simple words, "Be vague." A lot of people who use these networking sites don't even know how they work. It is safe to assume that whatever you post can be searched by the entire world, and it often times is. 

At the end of the day, laws have been passed and others not been passed, for the sole purpose of collecting all of our information and doing things with it we would rather not have done. Be extremely careful before you hit that submit or send button, because it is forever. Whether you're one of our clients or not, we believe in protecting people and providing a sense of awareness to better inform them on the dangers existent online.

We can help secure your data internally and externally and give you other tips on how else to protect that which matters most online. Call or email anytime.

-Dom