Week 12, privacy not included.

“If you want to keep a secret, you must also keep it from yourself.”

I thought this was a fitting quote and summary for this week’s readings, as they all center on our privacy (or lack of) while we’re using the internet or milling about the world.

The article I spent the most time digesting, “The Death of Privacy,” made some provocative points. I think it’s interesting to ponder that the loss of our collective privacy has taken place over time, mostly without us realizing. It’s been a gradual evolution of us sharing All the Details. But not all of us share all. And many share only the pretty things (myself included). That makes me wonder: who am I, who are they, and what’s real? I digress, though. I think pretty much all of us accept that we’re being watched and tracked by someone, somewhere. So why are we bothered? We expect, we demand that search engines (Google), give us what we’re looking, so do we expect they won’t use that information, our habits, to make our next search a better experience?

(Aside: I was surprised to learn privacy law is so new. It makes sense, but I had no idea just the same.)

Regarding the Pew Research article, “Americans’ Views about Data Collection and Security,” I think this isn’t a new concern, per say. We long ago knew our credit card companies and retailers participated in such practices, that they partnered to share our habits (shop here, and I’ll mail you this catalog for eternity...). It’s more in our face, is all, due to social media and our look-at-me lifestyle and algorithms that make us realize more startlingly that these platforms are sharing data across the board, so that no matter where we check in, they know where we’ve been…and what we’re likely to do next.

The stat about people thinking they were entitled to privacy at work was mind-boggling. It’s work, not your home. It’s someone else’s network/platform. How and why would we ever have the expectation we’d have privacy there? It’s equivalent to thinking you can go to someone's house and say, search for porn, and hope they’d be cool with it.

Pew Research also collected people’s thoughts about surveillance cameras. I ask: why do we need to avoid them? What’s the privacy violation? I get that public surveillance is prevalent. They protect a business’ bottom line and they protect consumers and they protect private citizens. To be honest, I don’t think about them that much. I think we’re probably safer and better for having them because they can be used to track and stop criminals.

If I’m being naive here, I look forward to being told why, but I’m going to throw this out there: I don’t see why all of this is such a big deal, to be monitored at work, for companies or organizations to save data about my shopping habit, to have cameras follow me. Do I like being tracked and marketed to across platforms? Not especially. In some instances I’ve been alarmed by it. It’s life, though. There are laws. I’m going to go ahead and follow them.

One thought about the Poynter article about The Intercept. I think it’s great that one company has found a way to protect its users’ privacy, but how does what one company is doing affect change at all companies? I don’t think this is going to start a trend. I don’t even think it’ll be a blip on the radar. Companies have to want to respect our privacy, and it’s not looking like we’re headed in that direction anytime soon.

A final note: I find it intriguing there are companies being created to protect us from the companies tracking our moves. It feels…full of irony. What data are these track blocker companies using to analyze their consumer’s behavior? What are they doing about the information they’re collecting about us in the process? I’m too jaded to believe someone when they say they’re keeping my data private. Sadly, it’s not the world we live in anymore.