The Online Privacy Twilight Zone
August 17th, 2009 |
Randy Cohen, “the Ethicist” for the New York Times, responding to an educator’s inquiry about Facebook ethics, wrote:
“…when these students gave her access to their Facebook pages, they waived their right to privacy. But that’s not how many kids see it. To them, Facebook and the like occupy some weird twilight zone between public and private information, rather like a diary left on the kitchen table.”
I’m not sure about the diary analogy. My daughter keeps a diary, but she’s at an age where I would not be shocked by its contents (and in fact, I wouldn’t look at it any way.) I believe we should get to know our children directly, and not by “hanging around with their friends” which might be a better Facebook analogy for parents.
And that’s the crux of it. Facebook updates (this varies with prvacy settings) are easily seen by friends, parents, educators and perhaps more importantly, law enforcement and potential employers. So no analogy other than “sending a full written report to the agency of your choice” really works here. Any other is clever, and perhaps stimulates conversation, but can lead to some serious online faux pas.
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I’m working on a blog post about this topic too. Where should we all draw the line and how many of us really understand the consequences of posting something like, “It’s 9am on Mon and I am so hung over. Is it 5 yet?” online so that an employer can see it. And I can’t tell you how often I’ve been embarrassed FOR some of my Facebook friends because of the photos they have online. I really don’t need to see someone I knew in University 10 years ago do body Jell-o shots off of a dancer… I really don’t.
Even those of us who talk the talk sometimes slip up when it comes to walking the walk - I recently ran and into an issue with my parents. They’re both on Facebook and I’ve allowed them full access to my profile; this is mainly because I’m not concerned about what they’ll see or read because I’m fairly conscious about what I say and do on The Tubes. But just recently I made a status update saying, “Virginia is having a bad day and feeling really home sick.” After reading this my mother because concerned and started phoning and then emailed asking if I was ok and wanted to know what was wrong. She meant well, and the fact that she lives half way across the country (I’m in Toronto, Ontario and both she and dad are in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador), it’s easy for her to jump to conclusions.
So it just goes to show that even if you’re careful, it doesn’t guarantee that you’re out of the woods. These online tools are great and allow us to stay connected with so many people 24/7, but sometimes I think we need to have some personal time, turn off and really go “offline” and off the radar. Do you really need to know that I had an English muffin with cream cheese for breakfast?
This is a great topic. Thanks for sharing!
Comment by Virginia — August 21, 2009 @ 12:11 pm
Great post. I really like the way you have described about online privacy. I think people will definitely found benefit from it. I keep seeing articles like these. Thanks for sharing. Keep blogging.
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Comment by London SEO — September 17, 2009 @ 11:49 pm