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Howto fix the problem:

Posted Oct 15, 2009 0:11 UTC (Thu) by drag (subscriber, #31333)
In reply to: Howto fix the problem: by gdt
Parent article: Ubuntu to store copies of all users' address books

Like what? That I use Evolution or not? How much information I feel like
backing up?

I really doubt there is much useful information that anybody could gleam from
syncing to a online backup share other then the location of the firewall I
was operating behind at the time I did my last sync.

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Traffic analysis can surprise

Posted Oct 15, 2009 2:27 UTC (Thu) by jreiser (subscriber, #11027) [Link]

The date and time of contact with the database are useful to those who might want to track you and those with whom you communicate. A Snoop can learn a lot by correlating that data with all the other data that is available. Many times the result is "only" classification into broad categories, but sometimes a very specific inference can be drawn.

Traffic analysis can surprise

Posted Oct 15, 2009 4:15 UTC (Thu) by dlang (✭ supporter ✭, #313) [Link]

if someone is after you specifically, _anything_ you do can be significant.

however, if someone is not after you specifically, but is just after things that they can sell, it becomes much easier to have reasonable defenses

"I don't have to outrun the bear, I just have to outrun you"

with "you" being enough other users that the bad guys don't get around to bothering with me.

yes, this is security by obscurity, and if someone decides to go after you it doesn't help much, but the reality is that for the vast majority of people this really is good enough.