Privacy is defined as "the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively (Wikipedia)." I see privacy as a way for people to protect themselves by keeping their most valuable and personal information secretive. In our everyday lives, we innately keep certain things private. For instance, we have been trained since a very young age to never give out personal information until we have come to know and are comfortable with the other person. Therefore, privacy is generally something we don't worry too much about in our everyday lives because we are always instinctly protecting ourselves.
However, privacy becomes a problem with the age of the internet. We cannot be as carefree when it comes to this medium because with it, it is so easy for our privacy to be breached. Every move we make on the internet has the ability to be tracked without us knowing. We have never faced a situation like this before because we have never had to worry before about someone putting a "tracking device" on us and watching us wherever we go. The internet is different though. It implements several technologies to serve this exact purpose such as cookies and ISPs. Therefore, in the world of the internet our previous methods used to protect our privacy do not apply. It isn't as simple as not giving out our personal information to strangers anymore. Online, we need to now watch what we do and where we go because we never know who could be tracking us.
The aspect of the internet that I worry the most about privacy with is social networking sites. I use facebook numerous times a day and could see how if I'm not careful, my privacy could be breached. I have opted not to include certain information, such as my place of employment and my residence in my profile, but I have many friends who do. People think that because they have made their profile private, they are protected. However, anyone who is friends with someone on their "friend list" can have access to their profile. Also, if a person posts something on another's wall, anyone on that other person's friend list can see it.
Because people are under the impression that only their friends have access to their site, they tend to include information about themselves that they ordinarily would not disclose to a stranger. Susan B. Barnes in her article explains that the types of information revealed online includes names, addresses, birth date, location, and numerous forms of contacts, including email, screen names, and links to personal Web pages. She says, “Because [teenagers] are revealing a considerable amount of personal information, as well as multiple ways to contact them online, the danger of cyberstaking and communicating with strangers online is a serious issue” (A Privacy Paradox). Most teens and young adults even recognize the reality of stalking on facebook, even poking fun at it by sending “bumper stickers” that in various ways say to the receiver, “I’m stalking you.”
Danah Boyd explains that the networked structure makes it easy for motivated individuals to find an individual through their friends. She says how most people on social network sites are naive to assume they are safe. She says, “Most participants on social network sites live by ‘security through obscurity’ where they assume that as long as no one cares about them, no one will come knocking. This puts all oppressed and controlled populations (teenagers) at risk because it takes just one motivated explorer to track down even the most obscure networked public presence" (Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What?) What I find especially concerning is that the “explorer” now doesn’t even need motivation. The newer “minifeed” component on facebook allows someone who is not friends with you, but a friend of a friend, to see what you are doing as soon as they sign on facebook. They don't need to seek you out anymore to gain information about you; it's all right there in front of them.
I, personally don’t know of anyone who has been negatively affected by “facebook stalking,” but Barnes explains in her article the worst outcomes of this kind of situation can include “children being exposed to pedophiles, and teenagers being raped by people they meet on social networking sites” (A Privacy Paradox). However, I do personally know of an instance when privacy was breached on facebook. Last year, my boyfriend’s facebook account was hacked into and his password was changed. The hacker changed his personal information and blocked certain of his friends, I being one of them. As you can imagine, I was not happy being blocked from my boyfriend's profile. It took a while for him to regain access to his password and his profile. The people at facebook were sympathetic and promised he would experience no future problems. However, that didn't turn out to be the case because a couple weeks later, his facebook was hacked into again and his password changed. Eventually, my boyfriend gave up and cancelled his facebook account altogether.
The hacking demonstrates why Boyd rejects “security through obscurity.” I’m sure my boyfriend was thinking, “Why would anyone want to hack into my facebook?” But obviously, someone did care enough to violate his walls of privacy. This proves that everyone on facebook is a target. “Obscurity” protects no one, and if someone really wants access to your profile, they will find a way. Therefore, everyone must be extremely careful not to include any information about themselves in their profile that someone else could use to track you. Even when you sign up for facebook, be careful not to include information like your address and phone number because if someone hacks into your account as they did with my boyfriend’s, they could then gain access to that private information.
Sources:
Barnes, S. (15 August, 2006). A Privacy Paradox: Social Networking in the United States. Retrieved 25 September, 2008, from First Monday Web site: http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue11_9/barnes/index.html
Boyd, D. (2007). Social Networking Sites: Public, Private, or What? Retrieved 25 September, 2008, from Creative Commons Web site: http://www.danah.org/papers/KnowledgeTree.pdf
Various. (25 September, 2008). Privacy. Retrieved 25 September, 2008, from Wikipedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy
2 comments:
It seems as though Facebook is turning in to the new Myspace. I wish that it was still exclusive to college students. Because its not I reset my settings so that only people I approve can view my profile. It is creepy to think of all the people you don't even know that are learning these intimate things about you.
My boyfriend is a teacher in PA and had a guest speaker in his class talking about how easy it is to "stalk" someone from the use of facebook. I wish I was there to hear all of it because I use facebook all the time. He said you wouldn't believe how easy it is and had no idea it was that way. Crazy.
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