There’s a lot of discussion about privacy these days: Facebook/Google takes on that subject, Foursquare geo-loc, Buzz, PleaseRobMe…
I believe it’s better to control your own digital life and share or not share what you want than trying not to be on the internet and end up on it anyway, thanks to a friend’s picture of you on FB or worse. I prefer to post a picture of my ass and let’s say that someone wants to put one to embarass me, well it’s going to be hard. I’m in control.
There is no such thing as too much transparency I guess. The world is going toward open, not close. If we open things, transparency has to be here. It’s embedded in the openness.
That’s where the two data giants of the internet are not fair and somehow scaring people: they know an awful lot about us (just think about it every time you use this search box, brr) but we don’t about them. Well if we want to know more about Google’s CEO private life, we can but I heard his house is not on Google Earth. Oh, and his lawyers put his mistress’ blog down last week-end.
When Microsoft is providing Hotmail to 270 million users, it’s not as big as a problem. MS business is selling software, operating systems and development tools. Google and Facebook business is to know you better to sell more ads to sell you more stuff. I know, we can’t really say to them to stop it. Actually they know that selling ads is a really poor income model in the digital age: Google is heading to become a network provider while starting selling electricity and Facebook is all about being a ubiquitous dev platform (for games of course).
We shouldn’t forget about what’s great about being connected: you meet people, crazy interesting people. You filter so much faster than in real life. Like was saying someone, for stuff posted on Facebook that got some people fired, how many of them have found work, friends, relationship with social networks? The balance is in favor of the positive I guess.
True.
Also it’s worth to point out that we benefit this amazing and exhaustive source of knowledge everyday. When we find on an obscure personal web page some really interesting information, or the exact answer we were searching for, we’re generally not really concerned about privacy in these moments.
Of course it’s a bit scary. But you don’t have to be active on the internet to have serious problems with people. Remember the cartoons making fun of Islam published in a local newspaper in Denmark in 2005? Well after years of death treats, assassination plots, one of the author faced someone wanting to kill him January 1st, 2010 with an axe and a knife in his own house. I’m pretty sure the cartoonist is not on Facebook doing RSVPs. He was under police protection since two years though. And he’s only a cartoonist using Freedom of Speech, you know. In a national newspaper, not on a blog.
The world is wild, online or offline doesn’t matter: privacy is pretty much dead since internet, GPS and mobile phones exist (you can know where the cartoonist lives just in a few seconds on Wikipedia). What you do, think does matter. And I’d rather know what you do, think than knowing nothing about your intentions. Online or offline.
That’s the cool part about staying closed: you don’t have to argue with anybody. It’s easier and as humanity, that’s what we did for now. It brought us WWI and WWII amongst other awful things like slavery. It’s harder to actively spread the positive mental attitude and keep an eye on everyone at the same time. The benefit of real freedom should overcome fear and laziness.
This is where the world collides. I know which way to go to avoid disasters in the future. Openness. Right now.
That being said, if someone wants to provide an email service as good as Google (keyword: spam filter) or a rss service providing privacy and sync with as many clients as I want, please go ahead. I would probably sign up immediately and even pay for it. (ala Flickr, no monthly fees kthxbye)
It’s not because I have nothing to hide that I want everybody to know it all almost by default.