…stays on the internet. Forever.
It was recently brought to my attention by some disgruntled Facebook users that Facebook is making changes to its general policy regarding privacy options on the content its users post. Essentially it seems FB is assigning its default to a more open format …any content published, unless that user changes these settings themselves, can be viewed by ‘Everyone’. More importantly, FB is giving the user more control over who has access to the various stories they choose to publish. You can read more about it here.
Again, as with my blogonesty post, there’s really no big concern about what you post if you keep in mind that whatever you do post has the potential to be seen/read/heard by anyone else on the internets. Is that so bad? As I mentioned before, I don’t think so. There was a time when the internet was somewhat like the wild west …back when the technology was new and constantly changing and somewhat hard to ‘pin down’ in terms of security over who was doing what and when. It was also a time when most computer users had to actually know something about computers – this is definitely not the case anymore! Now-a-days it seems the internet (or rather our internet activity) is simply an extension of ourselves …that is, our identity in the real world is staying with us in the cyber world. You’re no longer that geek hiding away in your parents basement hacking into whatever you feel like. Things aren’t so wild anymore.
Most people have no idea how new technology works. They’ve been lulled into a ‘plug and play’ mentality …the easier it is to use, the better off they are …or so they’ve been conditioned to think. For example – what young cell-phone user is going to care that their phone may contain features that allow it to be tracked, or what bumbling netbook user is concerned with wifi security, or what image sender cares that the day/time/camera-make/model and potential registration information is being sent along with the image, and who among the millions of forum and blog posters realize that their own computers (through their ISP or content hosts) are tagged/cookied and traced for future reference. Not many. I’d make the comment ignorance is bliss …but I don’t think it’s like that. Not exactly that is.
We do of course care about our privacy, which is why we get into such a kerfuffle when we hear about these rights potentially threatened. On one hand though, if you’re cloaked in anonymity (which occurs a LOT on the internet), you’ve technically relinquished any rights you have. Your rights are your rights …and being anonymous means not being there to claim them, so you have no ground to stand on in my opinion. On the other hand, if it’s a loss of personal information that concerns you, then shouldn’t some of the responsibility for giving/volunteering that information fall on your shoulders? Don’t blame big corporations for your lack of common sense/cavalier attitude about what you don’t understand. No one likes being told what to do – especially consumers …but for some reason we allow businesses to dictate how we should act with their products …while at the same time mindlessly using and endorsing what they provide. They give us what we want …and yet we somehow expect this to be free!? It’s not, and the price is our personal freedom. What should happen however, is that we become pro-active when it comes to new technologies, and not assume that just because the guy next door does it, it’s somehow OK for us. Or perhaps you might enjoy following your neighbor off that proverbial bridge next time around?
Here’s my advice …consider anything you place online as having the potential to be viewed by someone else. Email gives you a certain amount of security/legality when it comes to content, but even then there’s still a possibility for failure in the transmission. Secure/encrypted transactions however, are as good as any personal face to face meeting. Everything else though …facebook, myspace, blogs, forums, chat rooms, IM etc., should be seen as open territory. It’s a product/service you don’t actually pay for …and like they say, you don’t get what you don’t pay for. I don’t mean to suggest that there shouldn’t be any privacy on these fronts …but that in the still ever-changing world of social connectedness perhaps it would help if you erred on the side of caution. At least until there are more guarantees in place surrounding the legalities of your content. The problem is though, as soon as we clamor for more security with a product, the quicker we lose interest in it. It’s as if the added security takes the fun out of things. If Facebook become a paid service many of its users would walk away pretty fast.
Privacy is nice, but you have to realize what is and what isn’t private, especially online. In regards to social connectedness I think it’s a matter of having your cake – you can have it that is, and I suppose you can eat it …but it sure ain’t gonna taste too good when it also arrives on your spouses ‘wall‘ with a picture of an old girl/boyfriend attached to it.
Image from Facebook.
