Lets face it, most of us are plugged in nowadays. It’s an automatic thing, it goes along with living in our utopian 2009 society. In some form or another, we are all online and in the open. Even my ancient grandmother is online nowadays, stocking her grand children and finding out what we are up to.
For some, particularly the young urban populous, this is not a big deal…Where they go, who they know, who they are in relationships with, and what they are doing hour by hour is not considered private anymore. Is this OK? Many choose to be much more private than this, they do not wish to be out there, or as my non-computer literate business parter would say “deployed in the ecto-cyberwizard multiverse, shazbot nanu-nanu nanu-nanu”.
Some are concerned about personal information being on the web, some simply want to be a tiny blip on the human-radar. Whatever their reason, they are concerned about their privacy, they will not post their information.But why? It’s out there, a simple free background check, or search on your favorite search engine can yeild most personal information, a twenty dollar background check and search your criminal record, your credit, and even who your neighbors were, 20 years ago!
So, are users overly concerned about privacy?
In my opinion, yes. But no…bottom line, users need to face the music…It’s out there. In my opinion, although admittedly being a testosterone filled, scared of nothing, 21 year old male, my opinion is you really have nothing to actually loose nowadays. I feel the best option is transparency.
However, the topic of transparency on the web is not a simple black and white issue. One big issue when I think about privacy on the web, particularly with social networks, such as Facebook, is stalking. For many, this is not an issue, but I can see it being an issue for folks like females and celebrities. Stalking seems to come with the internet territory however. If this is an issue for you, well, your justified in becoming more private…Another major issue I see is the blur between personal and professional lives when posting personal information on the web…
I feel that one should have a separation of personal and professional life. It’s healthy. I do not feel like you should be held to the same standards you hold in the work place 24/7. If you want to post photos from a crazy weekend in Vegas, well, not Vegas, what happens in vegas, stays in Vegas. But if you want to post photos from a fun weekend in Mexico, you should be able too, without it having consequences for you in the workplace, or, at school. I feel that this blurring line between personal and professional life is a major threat today. You can find several issues in the news about students or employees who have had disiplinary measures taken for stuff they have posted online. In some instances yeah, I can see it being an issue…However if its personal it shouldnt matter.
I suppose thats the real privacy concern on the internet today…