Privacy - March 29

The Death of Privacy

As I began reading this article I thought about every person on Facebook and their content. Facebook is a give-and-take platform where people give their privacy away freely while the platform secretly takes what privacy is left over. With social media, people have to know that anyone can see what they post and it will always be out in cyberspace. People who freely post photos or statuses on social media have no place to complain about losing privacy.

The internet is a pot of water on the stove. When it first came to exist, people had no idea what it could or would become. By the time we understood that we lost our privacy, the water was boiling and we were cooked. For people who joined websites, posted pictures and statuses, joined chat rooms, bought things on sites or browsed websites, as the Internet was new, there was no threat of lost privacy. Now that the Internet is what it is, there is no excuse for new Internet users to claim they thought they had privacy.

It is hard to separate the Internet from the people who post on the Internet. The Internet didn’t sneak photos of Max Mosley, a person did. The Internet didn’t write articles about him, people did. Google is perpetuating content placed on the Internet by people.

Sharing Data, but Not Happily

Honesty is an effective method of persuasion. If a company states that they are collecting this data in exchange for a discount or better service, a consumer could be more compliant than if the company secretly took the data. When an app or site asks a visitor if the site can have access to your camera or photos, you have the option to say yes or no. Being upfront about the data collection allows the consumer to decide if the app, site, or service is worth giving up the data.

Most of these “better services” are unnecessary and not a fair trade for data mining. I don’t want better ads, more “relatable” content, or “better” search results in exchange for my data. It’s like a car sales person secretly upgrading you from a standard rear-view mirror to the one that tells you what the temperature in exchange for your web browsing history. Not necessary and not worth the trade.