The Void Looks Back

I noted with great interest an article on from Salon.com the other day about a woman who tracked down the thief who broke into her car using ordinary Internet resources. It’s partly that this is a great story, with both a “good-guys-win” ending and a revenge of the common person theme; it’s also got a very uplifting message about all of the ordinary people who went out of their way to help the author recover her scattered belongings. But it also points up something I’ve been saying for a while now about the ways in which our brave new world is changing, and in the process, changing us. I’d have to call it a cautionary tale for all of us, not just for really bloody stupid petty thieves…

If you don’t want to hit the link, here’s the basic scenario: After a thief broke into her car and stole her wallet, the plug-in GPS receiver, and several other things, the author went looking for the GPS on Craig’s List, and found it. She then ran the thief’s email address and online nickname through one of those reverse email finder services (usually about $15) and found him on a dating site, which led to his Facebook account, his real-world nickname, and his real name, date of birth, hometown, last known address, description and work history. With this information the police were able to tie him to surveillance footage taken when he attempted to use the author’s stolen credit card, and put him away for a two-year stretch – which hardly seems worth it, considering how little he actually got away with in the commission of the crime…

Now, I’m not saying that all of us can – or even should – attempt to bust our own criminal offenders at home using ordinary Internet tools. People still get away with stealing things, and there are some thieves who will have the sense not to try to sell things in places that leave a trail or use stolen credit cards in places that have the best surveillance equipment in their industry. In fact, even as a crime of opportunity, the individual in this case acted stupidly and was remarkably sloppy in getting caught on camera. I’m also not saying that the average person has done anything they would be attempting to hide, or that anyone out there should ever feel the need to look over his or her shoulder and wonder who is watching. What I am saying is that even if you’ve never committed an illegal act in your life, somebody already IS watching you – and it’s getting increasingly easy to gain access to that information…

Most people already realize that there is no true privacy online; your motions and actions on the Web can be traced, and your identity can be discovered. Most of us are protected, at least for the moment, not by privacy laws or firewalls but by the simple fact that no one really cares about us. The majority of us don’t have anything worth taking, and if you’re careful about what you do online you can lower your vulnerability to where you’re no more vulnerable to identity theft or fraud than anyone else – but you can’t eliminate that vulnerability entirely. The protection afforded by keeping a low profile is more like that of being one of a school of fish (predators have no way to pick you out individually, and no particular reason to try) than being tough, stealthy, or hard to prey on. If somebody happens to go after you, they will – even if you don’t ever leave anything valuable in an unlocked car…

So as you go about your online business today, just keep in mind that the Internet is not just a faceless, boundless void that we use for our own purposes. If you look too long upon the void, eventually the void looks back upon you – and it might just track you down using your social networking presence or fast-food store surveillance footage…