[Wavytone]

It’s worse though.

Remember the game “6 degrees of Kevin Bacon” ?

I have nothing to do with Yahoo, Facebook, Twitter or the rest of their ilk but they are trawling the net to make connections including my phone number and private email addresses.

To make matters worse you never know what companies you have signed up to for good reason are selling your data. For example if you order online from Woolies or Coles they sell your name, street address, email, phone number and purchasing history to others. Including FB, Twitter, linkedin and the rest

Then there are the likes of LinkedIn - and FB/twitter do this too - they mine your private address book and emails and match those against data they already have to find people you know. Which is how they extend their tentacles another degree.

Another aspect is that even when the data is only partial such as a surname, year of birth and postcode, that is sufficient to uniquely identify 99% of the population unless your surname is Smith, Brown, or a half dozen Chinese ones.

And lastly something many do not know is the direct marking companies have a collective database - it used to be “Brylars Australia Online” - with the personal details of most of the population including name, address, phone, email and much more. And it’s for sale, for a price. Even includes unlisted phone numbers.