My Privacy, Like Ontario, Is Yours To Discover

A colleague of mine recently sent me a link to a report on privacy, or the lack of privacy in today's world of social networking Can Privacy Exist on the Internet. In watching the report, it discusses how now more than ever people are sharing vasts amounts of information on the Internet and whether or not having the information in a public forum such as the Internet, removes the user's claim to privacy. Specifically, the report focuses on the boom of Facebook and whether or not employers have the right to screen candidates via Facebook.

Today's entry is not about the pros or cons of Facebook, which I've already spoken about in my entry To Facebook Or Not To Facebook, That Is The Question?. But rather, today's entry is about privacy, and how much of it we actually have in today's world of information.

Recently Facebook has taken a lot of heat about the amount of information it collects and who has access to this information. How Facebook has more data on the individual than the Government, and that they are selling it off to the highest bidder....But before we all jump on this George Orwell 1984 bandwagon about "Big Brother", let's take a step back. All of the information collected through Facebook, is user generated. Not only is it user generated, but it is willingly user generated. Which means if you don't want Facebook, the Government, or anyone else for that matter, knowing your personal information, don't give it. User's need to take some responsibility for the information that is out there.

Personally, I have never had a problem with Facebook, my bigger issues are with our email and instant messenger applications. Everyone is up in arms about the data that is transferred through social networking, but what about our everyday email? How many of us read the fine print when signing up for an email account? All the data that is transferred in private emails and instant message conversations can be read by the owners of the email client (i.e. google or yahoo).

Now I know what your thinking, that it's all just fine print that the companies don't actually read through your personal communications. This is what I thought too, until one of my professors at Humber had us sign up for a gmail account. What I discovered, blew me away. With gmail, there are advertisements along the side of all of your email communication, and if you look closely, they are all focused on the contents of your email. For example, you send your friend Bob an email about going up to the cottage for the weekend to do some fishing, you'll see that the advertisements on the page are all about fishing, cottage rentals, weekend retreats.... To my knowledge, gmail is the first email application to blatantly read the contents of your emails, but that isn't to say that the other ones don't.

Issues of privacy infringement aren't restricted to social networking and email communications, but can be seen through the use of cellphones as well. I'm sure you've all seen some spy movie where the Government taps into a conversation due to the use of some code word, or that the police locate the bad guy by tracking the location of the cell tower being used. These concepts aren't science fiction, but are in fact a very true reality. There are various companies out there, that can pull up a report on anyone of us at the drop of a hat, where we grew up, went to school, who we were friends with....

We can all be tracked, we can all have our privacy infringed on, the question is how much can we control it? Do the negatives of technological advancement outweigh the positives and therefore prevent us from engaging in them? These are all questions to be answered on a personal case by case level, but here's my thoughts...

Technology has always shown us two sides, a good and a bad. Those of us who choose not to advance, to play it safe, will lose out on all the amazing opportunities that technology has brought us. Those who are willing to take the risk, should do so cautiously. Information that you want to remain private, keep to yourself, or share the old fashioned way through face to face communication. Before sharing any information, you should always take a second and think about the consequences of people finding out...if the consequences are really bad then maybe think twice about sharing in the first place.

This isn't a blog on how to become technologically paranoid, but rather how to use common sense. We can't place all the blame on the medium, but rather we need to share in the onus ourselves. And after reading this blog, if you are really concerned about your privacy, google yourself and see what comes up?!