On the macro level, it's about the ease and access companies and governments have of collecting information about us, the transparency of those collection techniques, and how the data will be used. And I think to myself, sure, Google already knows a lot about me, but I seriously doubt anyone who works there actually cares about where I was this past weekend, or what I'm searching for on an individual level. My privacy paranoia tends to skew in the direction of government conspiracy (think Bourne trilogy movies; ever heard of the NSA?), and I'm less concerned about the corporations who just want to know what I'm buying so they can try to sell me things that I either (a) actually do want or (b) won't buy regardless. When I think about macro level privacy, I think about projects like inbloom - it's demise was poor execution. To be sure, there are others just like this popping up, and they will continue to do so.
Of course, the problem without a solution (yet) is determining how these institutions will use the data they've gathered on us in the future. Opinions vary across a wide spectrum here.
On the micro level, privacy is about being able to filter out what people can discover about us based on our digital footprints. I think that for most individuals, this is the more immediate concern. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg famously declared that privacy is dead. To a certain extent, he's right. I think what's important is that people young and old are educated about what privacy means in the age of the internet. The harm comes in not realizing the permanence of internet info, and not realizing what others have access to.
There are so many ways to share oneself with the world now. Each platform has different methods for managing privacy, but when you want to connect different (but not necessarily all) parts of yourself for others to see and/or get to know you better, it can be tricky.
Personally, I'm still conflicted about my current level of visibility. I've discussed my affinity for Google+ before. I like that it is a place where I can be easily connect with friends and participate in communities. However, the fact that it is such a public platform gives me pause. Then again, as a citizen of the world I think there's something to be said for embracing a public persona. I find myself wanting to be "out there" more than I want to conceal my identity and the idea of a managing false identities doesn't really appeal to me.
I think it's important that people be educated about the internet and privacy concerns. Once you are in the internet, you pretty much lose your privacy. So people need to know that once they put something online, it stays there forever. Awesome poll question!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment, echo. It's nice to know that someone is reading :)
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