I went to the little village of Odoorn in Drenthe to see a play of knights fighting in a tournament, these people gave a really good show, it was amazing. They fought with real swords and had real lances, Imagine how much practise you need to be able to do that, make it seem real and still not hurt each other. They have earned a lot of respect from me. They also gave an awesome bird show with beautiful birds.
After the tournament there was a battle for the kids with foam 'swords', the kids loved it. Unfortunately I couldn't take pictures of this because my phone couldn't stand the heat.
After this in the evening there was a Rapalje concert, I really love Rapalje, the pictures here aren't the best but it was a really cool show, specially when they lit the pipes on the bagpipes, that looked awesome.
I have also added the photo's taken by a good friend of mine, he also took some pictures of me and my neighbour who was there also.

Well, we can be very short about that, privacy on the internet doesn't exist.

No matter which site you go to, you'll get tracking cookies, sites that read your browsing history, targeted ads based on your search history and probably a lot more. The real question is whether this is a serious problem or not.

For example, Google. Did anyone ever try to turn of the tracking in Google? It is possible, if you have a Google account, just log on to your account and find the option to disable tracking and targeted ads. I did this, you know what the result was? I suddenly got a shitload of ads for dating sites and mortgages in the US (I am Dutch). People started asking me what I did on my computer that I got ads like that all the time, simple, I didn't get tracked anymore so my search results weren't taken in account when serving the ads.

So, that's actually a positive thing about being tracked, you actually get ads for things you might actually be interested in, this is good for the people who place the ads, they have a far better chance on actually earning money on it and it is a good thing for you since you have a far better chance on actually seeing an ad for a product you would really like to have or for information you could really use

But of course there is a big downside to all this, the people tracking you can use the information they gather for a lot of purposes, including building a complete profile of your online activities, this is potentially very bad. Of course they really want to use it to earn money so the ad selection is automated and no one actually wants to look at the browsing history of millions of people, so the information is aggregated and anonymously stored for the most part, so far not really a problem. However, more and more parties (also big parties like Facebook and Google) are willing to sell this data to third parties and some are willing to sell the data before aggregation and with all the relevant data which can lead to you as a person included. This data is outside your control and outside of the control of the party you, implicitly or explicitly, trusted with this data.

Most people respond to this with 'I have nothing to hide, so why worry?' well, I agree, I have nothing to hide from government officials but I am really curious why someone would want to know everything I do? To earn money, ok, I can understand that and even respect that and if it stays with targeted ads, I can even live with that, as long as there is some guarantee that my information is stored anonymously.

But now we get to things I do have to hide, not from the government, but at least from some other parties, imagine I have some embarrassing illness which I don't tell my friends and co-workers about but do search the internet about. One of the results will be targeted ads and if I use the same Google profile at work as I do at home this means I will suddenly get ads with solutions to my illness, my co-workers or friends will notice this as soon as they look at my monitor. This is a somewhat innocent but very realistic probability. It can also mean that my boss sees this information and decides he or she doesn't want me working there anymore and finds a reason to fire me. This is a bit of a stretch but things like this do happen more then is comfortable. Not to me of course, I don't have an embarrassing illness nor will I use my private profile on a work related computer since work and my private live should be separated in my opinion, however, loads of people still make these mistakes and they can actually ruin lives.

Though what scares me more is that the big parties sell this data, imagine my insurance company buying data from big advertisement companies like Google and Facebook specially of everyone who did a search for medical problems, this means they know I have an illness, this means they can decide to raise my insurance fee as a result.

These are realistic options.
There is of course also the scary thing called Prism, secret services who gather the same information. Well, I don't really mind if a Dutch secret service has a profile on me, I tend to trust my own government not to make too big mistakes or frame me if I say something they don't really appreciate (even if they have shown a horrible incompetence when it comes to ICT and the internet).
But do I mind that the NSA has a profile on me? Well, yes, actually I do, I don't trust the USA and their blatant ignoring foreign laws if it suits them.
For example one day the USA wanted to arrest someone in Germany, to do this they wanted to land in the Netherlands with an airplane, the Dutch government said they wouldn't allow it, the USA did it anyway and our beloved Dutch government send them a stern letter of disapproval, very impressive response. There are loads and loads of similar stories out there although a big portion of them may be fabricated by conspiracy theorists a part of them is proven to be true, that part is big enough to paint a picture which ignores foreign laws and policies, even of their allies if it suits them.

So no, I don't trust the USA. So do I want their most secret organization, an organization which has proven in the past that they ignore even the laws of their own country, to have a profile on me? No, not really, I don't see the use, I am not one of their citizens, I am not a terrorist or a criminal, so why would they need it? They have it anyway, they have it of everyone who has a Facebook or Google profile or on some other mayor social networking site. Remember, these are the people who blatantly ignore their own laws if it suits them, coming from a country which ignores everyone else his laws when it suits them.

Frankly, this scares me, and I hope I am not alone.

Some related links:

http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/we-should-all-have-something-to-hide/
www.groene.nl/2013/30/onweer-op-komst (Dutch)

The top link illustrates very well that we all have something to hide, even if we aren't aware of it, for example, did you know that in the USA it is illegal to have a lobster (dead or alive, bought or found) in your possession if it is smaller then a certain size?

Gives you something to think about doesn't it?

Everyone probably saw the picture on the front page and to the left here, so yes, Facebook denied, why?

Well, it's not as if I hate Facebook or social networking, personally I wouldn't want to put all my info on a site like Facebook but hey, it's not like what I do with this site is so different, I put loads of pictures here and give some information about my self and what I like or don't like. Now I even started blogging, it's not so different.

So why then do I think Facebook is bad? Well, again, it's not Facebook itself which is bad, the things I get annoyed by are things like the story I am about to tell you.

It's clear I do not have an account on Facebook nor will I have one in the foreseeable future. So one day I get an email from a site where I subscribed to their monthly news letters and info because I liked the sites subject and considered their articles valuable and related to my political views. This site did not have a user account system, only a possibility to subscribe to their newsletters and get general info about the subject. So, I subscribed, and one day got an email about a survey, the subject of this survey was something which was closely related to things I was thinking about at that moment and I had a strong opinion about the subject, so of course I decided to take the survey in the hopes I could make a difference in this world, again, it was a political survey of which the results would be presented to the Dutch government.

So, I click on the URL taking me to the survey and get a screen stating that I have to logon before I can take the survey, ok, fine, but I don't have an account, what are my logon options? Well, Facebook was the primary option, but luckily, the people who were hired to manage the survey (an external company specialized in organizing surveys) had thought of that problem, so I could go to their own website and create an account there, fine, let's do that. So I go to their website, click on create account and get directed to a page telling me that if I want an account I first have to logon to this site with Facebook.

Can you understand my frustration? I mean, even if I had an account with Facebook, do you really think I will enter my username and password on a third party website? That's a huge security risk. And even if the website is completely safe and they actually mean well, do I really want to link my political opinion to a Facebook profile where people can see who my friends are and how drunk they got last night?

The things you post on Facebook can have a tremendous impact on your life, is it really wise to link this to official things you do online? Is it really necessary to link this to the tech site where you want to read an article for your work? There are enough stories on the internet about people getting fired for saying something bad about a colleague or boss on Facebook, stories about peoples house getting robbed when they are on holiday, etc. In my opinion it is very wise to limit the number of people who know your Facebook profile and can read your posts, that's why I urge websites and the people running them to ALWAYS keep a seperate logon system for people who do not wish their Facebook profile known all over the world. And, of course, also for people like me, who just don't have Facebook nor want it.

Next to this story there are ofcourse more factors, things like Prism, Facebook trying to force people to use real names instead of nicknames while historically the internet has been a place of nicknames and anonimity. And why would they want to force people to take away profiles of their pets? Pets are cute and I can understand people wanting to show the world their beloved pet.

Update 2013/07/20: Of course it is possible to secure your Facebook profile, if you pay attention to not post private details and if you check you security settings.

Update 09-09-2013: Ok I have caved, I have made a Facebook account, everyone is dumping MSN so I kinda needed the chat, it's scary though to see how much I already posted and how happy I was to join the big Look At Me party.

An album of pictures taken with my old phone, so not the best pictures since they are taken with a phone, but still, pictures of my cats :)

Here you see some of my dragon statues (yes I love dragons, read the about section) and some of the decorative things I inherited when both my grandmothers died in 2012. The two-headed dragon is actually made by my mother, yes she is an artist.