More than a maths teacher

As part of my work for Unit H807 from my MEd course with the Open University, I am keeping a privacy diary for a week. It appears I’ve had an irony bypass, because I’m publishing my privacy diary here. I wonder what I will discover?

Driving around today, I found myself being alert to something that I usually ignore: cameras. They are everywhere: looking at traffic; looking at customers in shops; hanging over the bar of the local pub; even in school. I think I’ve got so used to the omnipresent cameras that I just don’t see them anymore.

I can’t say I like being filmed every time I venture out of my house and I remain unconvinced that these cameras offer any real benefits in terms of personal safety – if they did, installing them across the UK by the thousands would have caused a noticeable change in crime rates. However I do appreciate being able to use the camera system in Sheffield to check on traffic, something that is especially useful during periods of wintry weather.

It’s not much of a benefit as a trade-off for an Orwellian level of surveillance though, is it?

Image credit: CCTV camera by Mike_fleming, on Flickr. Used under Creative Commons Licence.

As part of my work for Unit H807 from my MEd course with the Open University, I am keeping a privacy diary for a week. It appears I’ve had an irony bypass, because I’m publishing my privacy diary here. I wonder what I will discover?

I checked my bank statement and made some payments online, so a lot of logging in and being asked for name, password and whatever random details the site owner thinks will make it secure.

I’m not convinced by all these security questions – after all discovering my mother’s maiden name wouldn’t take a great deal of detective work. I have a solution to this – I don’t quite answer the question as was intended. And that’s all I’m going to say about that

I also have an issue with the number of passwords I need to remember. I reached overload a long time ago and came up with a solution: I have a method for generating passwords, which means I can (usually) recall them later without needing to write them down. Obviously I’m not going to tell you what my method is, but I use it on most sites. A few key sites like the bank, which really do need a high level of security, get passwords created in a different way.

I also seem to have been bombarded with changes to terms & conditions and privacy policies. I do read these, but I tend to skim. I’d really like to see a limit on the lengths of such documents. Some that start off reasonably get longer and longer with each update. It leaves me wondering what they are trying to hide…

Finally I’ve been putting Do Not Track Plus through its paces. Almost every site I’ve visited has Google Analytics installed. I don’t feel comfortable with that. I used to use Google Analytics on MoreThanMaths.com, but I’m in the process of removing it. I like Google’s products, I’m a big fan of Gmail and Google Calendar, but I worry about the cost. These things aren’t free, I’m paying in data. I’d rather pay money.