It's a small town, know what I mean?

[wombat_socho]

Technology Review: The Changing Nature of Privacy on Facebook:
TR: A lot of people wonder why it matters if companies share personal data. How are people affected by privacy violations

Comments

[polaris93]

This is an outstanding example of technology, especially information technology, rapidly outpacing human awareness. That's not just an excuse, and it's going to continue to be a problem for quite some time, probably until the next generation has grown up, and may go on even after that (people often being the sort of unthinking idiots they so frequently are). "Once it's up on the Web, it's up there forever" isn't just a saying: it's true, and the sooner everyone who accesses the Web for any reason learns that, the better. Which includes teachers. Facebook is entitled to do its business the way it does it, though it should have given more warnings to its customers about that. A far better -- and older -- saying is, Caveat emptor: "Let the buyer beware."

[wombat_socho]

Pretty much. People need to get used to the fact that whatever they do is going to be all over the Web in no time flat if it's the least bit interesting - just like in the old days, everybody in town knew if you did something dumb. Cities don't give you anonymity any more, and it's an open question whether city air makes you free any more.

[polaris93]

It's going to take a while for the culture to evolve enough for most people to realize that. And, of course, teenagers being what they are, adolescents + Web = probable trouble, because there's always some adolescent idiot who has sex with a friend and posts photographs from those encounters on Facebook, or some other social medium. What has to happen is for the word about the trouble you can get into like that to get around in schools in a form teenagers can believe. "The hard way" is always going to be the most solid learning experience, unfortunately.

[wombat_socho]

Truth.