Before you roll your eyes at yet another Facebook article, bear with me. Facebook is only the start of the issue which is, of course, privacy. When it comes to the Internet, privacy is clearly a bit of a pipe dream. But does that mean that sites should be allowed to display our details by default, leaving those among us who are not so savvy possibly open to identity fraud and cyber crime? Or is there no excuse for being uninformed in an online world?
Privacy is one of the big Internet hot topics and has been for some time. We've wondered about Google's grip on us and now Facebook is planning to open up all our profiles to search engines unless we opt out. And it's the opting out that has me worried. It's easy to say that people should think before they put their information on the web. But there are a lot more companies and business insisting that it's perfectly safe to bank with them / get a mortgage with them / sign up for alerts than there are sites suggesting we hold back. Even the recent public spate of warnings from various 'net-policing organisations hasn't really got our attention. So do we just leave people to their own devices and say "I told you so" or do we use the law to protect those who do not know how to protect themselves?
The combination of Google and Facebook means that anyone will be able to search for a public profile. Facebook has assured us that to contact us they must still sign up and log in, but actively encourages us to free up our privacy setting: "if you want your friends to search for you..." (my emphasis). The implications for cyber-harrassment, one of the fastest-growing online crimes, are obvious and many. Instinctively I feel that this should be one of those situations where publication of details online should be an opt-IN scenario, not opt-out. I've already set my privacy settings relatively high on Facebook, so should not be one of those who becomes searchable; it's in my interest to keep at least SOME of my life private as I'm already selling out much of it by being an online writer.
Recently a bunch of my sister's friends joined Facebook. My sister spends so much time on Mumsnet talking about her son that she's reticent to join yet ANOTHER site, but her friend commented to me that she didn't know how to adjust her privacy settings and hadn't really had time to do so. She's a busy woman, she set up her page quickly using default settings and didn't really think about it until it was pointed out. She's also a bright, relatively tech-savvy woman, so I'm sure she'd work it out in seconds, but it would be refreshing if protecting our privacy and warning us of the dangers of making certain information public were the default, even on social networking sites.
At first glance what I've just said seems counterintuitive, I know. It's a social networking site, right? So you've got to expect some communication with others. But we all know that many of these sites, Facebook in particular, have become more like little online havens where we just want to link up with people that we know, extending that circle with some caution. I could say it's just our problem; the owners started the sites to make a connection and, frankly, to make money, and it's not in their interest to let us hide. Besides which, they might argue, why should they be forced to change their practices just because we're not vigilant about concealing information such as our location, date of birth and more which make it ridiculously easy for some unscrupulous type to commit identity theft?
I have to admit that even I'm not sure what the answer is to this. Just like when I struggled over my Philosophy essays at uni where I wanted to say that nature and nurture conditioned us to such an extent that we have very little practical freedom whilst still arguing that we should take responsibility for our actions, I can see a problem emerging here. At what point does protecting people even from their own daftness cross over into relentless nannying? Do we have to ask social networking sites to start having cigarette-packet style warnings just so that everyone thinks before they click? Would that even work? You're an opinionated lot (I hope). You tell me.
Alex Roumbas is Deputy Editor of Shiny Shiny. There's only so much you need to know about her.
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It’s not really daftness – it’s more than there’s no real precedent for whether the default option for search and social networking sites should be to share the personal info they are given, or to keep it completely private. It’s the kind of thing that has intellectual property lawyers giggling with excitement because you can almost smell the potential for lawsuits. It’s also an adjustment to the fact that the Internet isn’t some wonderful utopia – there are zillions of people out there who would use your personal info for all kinds of nefarious purposes.
Besides, what’s the upshot of having some of your facebook profile public? Aside from a bit of indignation and the occasional cyberstalker (oh, hold on … tell that to Kathy Sierra) what’s the implication? A bit of oddness is the norm – Lucy Kellaway wrote a column a while ago saying that anyone who didn’t show up as a bit of a freak under close facebook / myspace / friends reunited scrutiny was well … a much bigger kind of freak. That said, anything online these days can and will be shared, and if you don’t want it to be public – best not to put it on.
After all that, I’ve got my privacy settings up pretty high too – you never know who’s looking…