Online privacy is a farce
My grandmother always told me to never put anything in writing. She would shudder at the thought of how much I type out and allow to be archived online every day. But what can I say? I’ve chosen to work in online and this is the job.
I blog. I tweet. I post status updates on Facebook. I participate in online discussion forums and instant message my friends and business contacts on Skype. I use Gmail and archive pretty much everything. I chat on there too. I post photos and allow others to comment on them. I comment on people’s blogs. The list could keep going but you know what I mean. If you’re reading this, you probably do it too.
This week, in light of all the brouhaha about the criticism of Facebook’s privacy changes, I thought I’d write my own friendly reminder about watching what you say around the Internet. More specifically, I think people sometimes get caught out because they forget some very basic items of importance:
1. Your “privacy settings” are only as good as the people who you trust to view your profile and musings. I keep a tight rein on my Facebook friends list. My personality dictates that there is very rarely a case where I say something that I don’t care if others hear. If I really want to keep something a secret, only my fiancé gets to hear it. That’s right: one person in my life has that level of trust with me. I assume that everything else I say is fair game.
So if you post something on Facebook that might be somewhat sensitive, you should consider who gets your status updates. No, they can’t forward things on, but screen grabs are a simple way to spread your words outside of Facebook. I’ve seen this happen several times over the last year or so. Information has come my way that I know I wasn’t intended to see.
2. Computers and electronic content management systems are not infallible. Glitches happen. You might think you’re posting information somewhere safe and then something goes wrong somewhere in cyberspace and all of a sudden someone manages to see that message you assumed was private. Programs are incredibly complex and one thing I’ve learned from working online is that you can’t assume airtight privacy settings within complex websites. All it takes is a smarter hacker than the person who developed a site to gain access and cause havoc.
People put their data in places these days without thinking and then forget all about it. Think about how many profiles you’ve set up because you have to sign up for a site to read the content. A friend of mine whose husband works in cyber-security has told me that she never provides her correct birth date or other identifying information to websites. Smart lady.
Human error comes into play here as well. How many times do you hear about someone in a company stuffing up and releasing data? Or intentional “leaks” that occur? Or you forget to adjust that privacy setting?
3. Large volumes of content can now be archived forever and this type of data storage is cheap. You’ve probably heard of cloud computing. Data storage doesn’t even take up a company’s office space anymore. Photos, videos, emails, documents and all those petabytes of other data hanging around in cyberspace are just sitting around waiting to be mined one day. The speed of technology for improving methods to sift through all that information certainly makes me think twice about lifecasting.
4. And finally, yes, bummer, the laws can still apply. I found this blog post online today and while it is from an American source, it probably still applies in your local area.
I’m not a legal expert so I won’t say too much on this. BUT: Defamation lawsuits over online writing can mean that what you write could become a costly legal mess. Yes, I know, most companies don’t want the bad press. The smart ones are getting involved in online conversations (enter yours truly). But don’t count on that. And individuals can sue for defamation too. So think twice before you go harassing someone online or having a vent about a person in an electronic public space. Just because you wouldn’t take it to court doesn’t mean that someone else is as forgiving.
What tips do you have for maintaining your privacy and generally being smart about what you say online?
