What would you trade your Privacy for?
Sunday, October 4, 2009 by May Rose
Privacy is defined by dictionary.com as the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one’s private life or affairs.
But as technologies develop rapidly perhaps the definition of privacy is changing, either that or external sources are slowly invading on this right. More and more we are having to trade aspects of our privacy for access to Social Networking Sites, Special Offers and protection. The question is how much do we value our privacy? What would we trade it for?
Perhaps one of the most notorious invaders of privacy are Social Networking Sites. One must trade a few details about themselves in order to get an account and that is only the beginning. In Dannah Boyd’s article Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck, she talks about the controversy after Facebook introduced Newsfeed as a part of its site. It is the first thing one sees when one logs into their Facebook account and gets clogged by annoying application notices that most people don’t care about. Newsfeed has helped Social Convergence slowly become more normal online. Unless one is careful, messages that you thought were private between you and a friend can be read by anyone on their contact list.
Ultimately the best policy for keeping things private is by keeping it to yourself.
But as technologies develop rapidly perhaps the definition of privacy is changing, either that or external sources are slowly invading on this right. More and more we are having to trade aspects of our privacy for access to Social Networking Sites, Special Offers and protection. The question is how much do we value our privacy? What would we trade it for?
Perhaps one of the most notorious invaders of privacy are Social Networking Sites. One must trade a few details about themselves in order to get an account and that is only the beginning. In Dannah Boyd’s article Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck, she talks about the controversy after Facebook introduced Newsfeed as a part of its site. It is the first thing one sees when one logs into their Facebook account and gets clogged by annoying application notices that most people don’t care about. Newsfeed has helped Social Convergence slowly become more normal online. Unless one is careful, messages that you thought were private between you and a friend can be read by anyone on their contact list.
Ultimately the best policy for keeping things private is by keeping it to yourself.