Jim Rapoza recently wrote about Twitter.com, an up-and-coming “Web 2.0″ site that allows people to make small “status” announcements about themselves and allow friends to view what is happening in their lives, either directly from the website or through SMS, IM, or 3rd-party applications. As he states, it is essentially, “..like a blog but without all of that, you know, actual content.” In short, it’s pretty much what t(w)eens are doing most of the day anyway, but in a more public, more centralized way.
I signed up, of course, if nothing else just to see what it was like. I’m all about exploring new technologies and systems like this, even if it is pointless, stupid, or proves to be un-useful for me. So, you can see my “twittering” in the link in this post. You can even sign up and add me as a friend if you really want to know all the stupid details of my life. Caveat emptor.
follow tarsi210 at http://twitter.com
Jim’ s article was, however, not so much about the new site but the idea that many are now proposing that privacy is not as much of a concern to the upcoming generations as it was in the past. So many people are broadcasting what the older folk sees as “intimate details” on the Internet through various sites that a precusory conclusion might be that it’s no longer necessary to fret about security and obscurity. However, I (and Jim) do not think this is the case at all; rather, it is a shift in the way we look at things.
I think Mr. Rapoza missed the opportunity to comment on one particular viewpoint of this entire debate — the idea of choice in the matter of privacy and publication. Yes, it is true that people are loosening up as to what they talk about in public forums, details that they transmit to their friends and family, and ideas that they throw out with wild abandon. But it still comes down to a matter of choice and control, and privacy advocates would be well to emphasize these aspects and insist that laws, regulations, and systems be constructed to allow the power to decide to stay in the hands of the individual.
I may very well write some more personal items on this blog, but I still have control over what goes here. Nowhere will you see me mention details about my employments; one learns not to do so or risk getting dooced. I may talk about ex-girlfriends at some point or another, but I’m not likely to go into detail about intimate encounters. Maybe I’ll make a posting about a drunken college episode but I’m not about to reveal a secret told in confidence.
These sorts of decisions are made and controlled by me and protected by various privacy systems. I may email my wife and talk to her about intimate things, but that doesn’t mean I want it broadcasted to the Internet as “something going on in Nathan’s life”. Nor would I want a private argument in my family to get plastered all over Twitter unless I felt that it was necessary.
Jim states, “Obviously there are different levels of privacy, and the point at which it becomes an issue is different for everyone.” He’s absolutely correct, and the crux of the issue here is do you have control over it? When a corporate entity publishes your contact information without your consent, that is and should be a violation of your privacy. Yes, I publish my full address and phone numbers on my website, because I feel that it is public knowledge anyway and I am gaining no more risk by doing so. However, even with this already in place, if a company were to publish or sell my address to another, I would be extremely upset.
The problems I see upcoming in the industry and politics is how to properly regulate all of the possible scenarios. Could the company above argue successfully that it found my address on the Internet and, thinking that it was “public knowledge”, used it for whatever purposes it wanted? I would hope not, but I cannot be sure, and this will become more and more prevelant as daily details are inserted into places like Twitter, MySpace, and Facebook. Already we’ve seen a rash of employers Googling their potential hires and using details on places like these for and against the candidates. These issues will only continue to get larger, not smaller, and much legislation will be made about them in the future, I predict.
