Business
Daily Paper Promotes On Line Neighbor Site
April 9, 2012 
DISCLAIMER–The GUARDIAN has never been to an ATM machine, rarely uses the drive up teller at a bank, fakes confusion for automated “check in” at the airlines, has never sent an electronic birthday card, and generally prefers to talk face-to-face with tellers, agents, friends, and other humans.
When we saw the majority of Monday’s front page (they call it the cover these days) of the Daily Paper devoted to yet another on-line phishing expedition aimed at gathering information, we just chalked it up to a “sign of the times.”
The site they promoted is called NEXTDOOR and it professes to provide a forum for neighbors. However it collects information about folks and here is what it says in the fine print agreement:
“In the future, we may create a section of the site to present offers for goods and services we think you’d like. If you decide to participate with an offer, you may be presented with an opportunity to share information with the merchant. If you accept the offer, then we’ll send the information you requested to share with the merchant. We won’t transmit information to the merchant until you explicitly ask us to do so. At that point, the data we deliver to the merchant will be governed by the merchant’s privacy policy, not ours.”
Which means “once the genie is out of the bottle, your personal data is no longer private.”
In our neighborhood, we actually TALK to each other. If a trash can is at the curb, one of us will return it to the garage. If someone doesn’t get home in a timely fashion, a quick call will get the dog let out because we all have keys to each other’s house. And you can bet there won’t be an ad on your doorstep if you talk about insurance, dog groomers, restaurants, or movies either.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Apr 9, 2012, 9:08 pm
Is your age showing? Get with the times. Sounds like a fuddy duddy complaining about the good ol days and how you could buy a candy bar for a nickel.
EDITOR NOTE–And those candy bars were Charleston Chew, Zagnut, Clark Bar, Baby Ruth, Peter Paul Almond Joy, Mounds,
Mallo Cup, candy cigarettes, Necco, Oh Henry! just to name a few.
The point we were attempting to make is a human factor–like talking to people in person and respecting your elders…something you need to do Nate since I turned 66 recently.
Apr 10, 2012, 6:29 am
DISCLAIMER – Haven’t actually written a check in months. Always use the ATM. Use an internet bank with no actual branches anywhere.
It sounded like a pretty good idea to me… certainly not a phishing scheme. And if they want to target some ads to us based on our address.. that’s fine too. The only personal data that’s on the site is data that I choose to share.
Apr 10, 2012, 6:45 am
My age must be showing to. Our neighborhood use to be made up of folks over the age of 50, we had barbecues, everyone was outside on the weekends working in their yards or taking walks. Always friendly and talkative. Now we have about 60% young folks. Never come outside and if they do they have no idea how to communicate with there neighbors. I’ve actually watched them walk in their garage when anyone walks bye so they don’t have to say hi.
If you talk to any of them its short and there out of there. So do they know how to communicate? No I think they’ve lost the ability.
Apr 10, 2012, 10:09 am
When I was a kid growing up in Boise, we knew everybody within a half-mile, by face and by name! And we didn’t need no steenking Nextdoor computer thingie.
Now I know a couple neighbors by name. But I don’t know the name of the guy over the fence who likes to walk around naked in his back yard. Or the lady over the other fence with the incessantly yapping dog.
I don’t have time for real live neighbors – too busy keeping up with all my Facebook friends! Well, gotta go – I’ve got some twittering to do.
(As for the offers from merchants – BRING IT! The only reason I have email is because I love all the fantastic offers I get every day.)
EDITOR NOTE–We have several requests for the “over the fence address” and two Ambien in a raw meatball will take care of Yapper.
Apr 10, 2012, 11:23 am
Here’s the thing: for those of us who are a little younger, in neighborhoods that are in the process of renewal, this could be a really good thing. It’s hard to break the ice, and unfortunately, it seems like it’s often broken by way of nasty arguments over whose lawn doesn’t get mowed often enough, or who has a project car parked on the grass. I’ve experienced this first-hand- we had a neighbor move in who quite literally made several of us miserable for a couple of YEARS, due to her calls to the BPD, animal control, and City Code Enforcement, and even threatening notes to one fella- God forbid that anyone should park their RV in their driveway, or feed a stray cat! Sadly, in our section of the neighborhood, some of us have had to break the aforementioned ice by forming an alliance against this one nutty neighbor. Prior to this situation, we knew almost everyone, and it was a relaxed, MYOB kind of place- most of our neighbors were elderly, but most have since either passed away or moved into retirement living, and new folks are moving in all of the time- it’s a neighborhood in renewal. It would be really nice to have a neutral ground to get to know people, instead of having to get to know one another due to an adverse situation. Also, people might have a better understanding of each other, and not be so quick to call in The Authorities when they see something that they see as an “infraction”. Yeah, they might use personal demographics to increase marketing, but heck, they can get that from the White Pages, these days!
Apr 10, 2012, 1:19 pm
How did people get along before there was the internet? They did exactly what Robert said they talked to people who were walking by, they looked over the fence when the neighbors were cooking out and said hey that smells good…. its called having personality…. most young people and by that (I mean ANYONE under 30) has no idea how to interact with people around them. The world used to be a pretty friendly place…. not so much anymore… and it’s sad… get with the times…lol….. the clock needs to trun back several years…life was better… could be again… but not heading that way
Apr 10, 2012, 3:32 pm
We, as a society, are giving away the crown jewels of our privacy to everyone in the world with a computer. It’s just plain nuts to do this. There are crumbs of info about all of us scattered all over the internet. The survey takers online want to know all of our financial info about how much we make, do we rent or own, where we live and the list goes on and on. And if we elect to participate we might even get a “free” tshirt.
Why anyone would give this info away to a stranger on the internet and at the same time would be offended if a stranger walked up and asked for the same info seems very odd to me.
Apr 12, 2012, 9:10 pm
@Rick: Worry not, a few more years of leadership from the type of fools we’ve had for the past several decades and the clock will turn back.
Apr 13, 2012, 9:24 am
we can only hope….