Harmless Exposure?
Sunday, September 27, 2009 by Maria
This week’s reading addressed the issues of exposure and invasion in regards to internet privacy with the main example of the Facebook "privacy trainwreck' due to its introduction of the news feed feature in 2006. Following this example, the controversy raised in regards to other social networks such as the popular (in Russia) Russian network (www.odnoklassniki.ru) was just as bad if not worse. Recently there has been a political scandal over this site for revealing a lot more than just personal information.
The site itself came out in 2004 and proved to be very popular with the Russian public to the point where even politicians as well as members of the military joined into this social network (which is made primarily for the purposes of reconnecting and keeping in touch with old class mates). Following the sites exposure, the militaries’ base primary location was very soon found and compromised by a few members of the opposition at the time. The reason for this was that young military troops would reveal all there is to know about who they are and where they serve for the purposes of social networking with their friends and family outside of the army as well as with their peers serving in other military camps. In some way this is understandable: Because the service in the Russian army is restricted from family visitations etc. the troops used the internet as a primary source of contact with their family and peers forgetting that this information could be revealed to either friend or foe that can put it to negative use.
And who would have ever thought that such a harmless, friendly, social site could have revealed something of such confidential national importance!
This once again reinforces the idea that the information that we distribute over the net can be used against us not only in relation to personal matters, but to an even greater magnitude which may not only put our own privacy at risk.
The site itself came out in 2004 and proved to be very popular with the Russian public to the point where even politicians as well as members of the military joined into this social network (which is made primarily for the purposes of reconnecting and keeping in touch with old class mates). Following the sites exposure, the militaries’ base primary location was very soon found and compromised by a few members of the opposition at the time. The reason for this was that young military troops would reveal all there is to know about who they are and where they serve for the purposes of social networking with their friends and family outside of the army as well as with their peers serving in other military camps. In some way this is understandable: Because the service in the Russian army is restricted from family visitations etc. the troops used the internet as a primary source of contact with their family and peers forgetting that this information could be revealed to either friend or foe that can put it to negative use.
And who would have ever thought that such a harmless, friendly, social site could have revealed something of such confidential national importance!
This once again reinforces the idea that the information that we distribute over the net can be used against us not only in relation to personal matters, but to an even greater magnitude which may not only put our own privacy at risk.