all posts tagged “privacy”
Vimeo, You Mock Me
Posted by: leelefever on July 28, 2007- 5:00pm
Categories: Online Usability, privacy, video, videoservice, vimeo
Let me start by saying I like Vimeo. The video host has great features (like the thumbnail chooser), a personal attitude and slick interface. For our purposes, we like Vimeo because they focus on controlling privacy - you can share a video with just one person. We use it to share rough cuts of videos with clients. Vimeo does a lot of things well.
That is why I'm both perplexed and disappointed by an experience lately. We tested the privacy system to see what happens when we share video with someone who is not a member.
Sachi is a member and added me (using an old email address) to her list of people with access to a video. I received this email:
Sachi wants to share! Yaay!
I then clicked the link and saw this page:
Whaaa? Boooo!
It's great that the privacy works, but how about a little more information about the remedy? What do I need to do to see the video that has been shared with me?
How about adding this tiny bit of information:
"You must become a member (or be a logged-in member) of Vimeo to view a protected video. You can do that here."
That would help a lot. Thanks!
Robin Hamman just got new glasses and at the same time, had high-res digital scans of his retinas...
Today, about a month later, I've finally received an email with those images attached and they're really beautiful. Not just because they contain a view of my own eyes that I've never been able to see before or, indeed, because my eyes are in any way particularly lovely or different from the next person's. But from a "isn't biology wonderful" and "hey, check this out" perspective, I'd love the post the photos here and/or on flickr.
The question is, should I?
According to BiometricNewsPortal, retina scans have an error rate of one in 10 million in comparison to fingerprinting which can result in an error rate as bad as 1 in 500. The site also says that:
"retina biometrics systems are suited for environments requiring maximum security, such as Government, military and banking. Retina biometric systems have been in use for military applications since the early seventies..."...I'm thinking that, as cool as those retinal images might be, it could very well be a bad idea to post them online. In fact, I should probably be emailing the optician to request that they delete the images.
I can't say I've ever thought about such a thing, but I think Robin has a point. As much as I share online, I think something like a retinal scan could be a risk that could come back to bite you in the future.
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