Seriously, Why Do Family Members Always Need To Know Where You Are At All Times
Posted by Andrew Virender in Uncategorized, tags: applications, computers, facebook, internet, myspace, Privacy, safety, social networking, software, twitter, UncategorizedA new “geolocation information generator” has been launched on the internet. Its creator, Yiannis Kakavas, has given it the intriguing name of Creepy. Many privacy rights advocates have raised their concerns about the possible impact of this application to individual privacy. What can this new application do and why should it cause such concern?
Kakavas created Creepy as a package for Linux or Windows. The third package for Mac OS X is now in the process. Essentially, this app makes use of social networking services in order to isolate a user’s location. It can do this by gathering the information furnished by the user to the network and putting together these pieces of information. The software has just been launched, but has already shown its job efficiency in living up to its title.
Creepy has an integral search utility to find any individual online. The user has only to input the Twitter or Flickr username of that individual then hit the “Geolocate Target” button. All photos or tweets that the individual has published or posted online will be downloaded by Creepy. From those materials, Creepy will pinpoint the user’s location at the time each of the materials was published.
The software then gathers every piece of information existing to make up a meaningful collection of data. After processing, a map showing the user’s various locations is accessible. Taken one by one, these data locations do not tell any significant information, but when gathered jointly as a whole, it will really tell much about the target. The user’s “publication” history is revealed, comprising his or her most frequented places or hang outs, the area around his or her address, and even his or her office.
Kakavas was able to finish the program in just three months. He used the resources found in publicly available libraries like osmgpsmap, pyexif2, and tweepy. In his mind, Kakavas believes that he has created something that will make people think seriously about their privacy. He would like to raise consciousness among users about how thoughtlessly they disclose their personal information online.
He explains that those small pieces of data can be easily put together in order to create more important information. It would be too late for users to recognize that it would have been better if they kept those bits of information to themselves. These are the usual ones like address, place of work, the places they hang out most often - things that users usually consider as worthless.
He added further that he created Creepy also for social engineers to have a means for information gathering. Specifically for security analysts, Creepy can be used to carry out penetration testing. The information that they gather now can be used for other purposes later.
Using a software program such as Creepy pin points where you are all the time.. The opposite of this is to use an anonymous proxy to hide your IP address which masks your actual location.
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