on moaning about privacy

Privacy is really important, no doubt. The boundaries between what we consider private and public are constantly changing as the availability of vehicles for sharing become easier to access. However, they're not changing as much as you think.

As a for instance; I write on Twitter (and, subsequently Facebook) things that I would talk about with my friends at the pub. I am probably in a minority here, but everyone freaking out about privacy online is jumping off the deep end for a substandard reason. If you restrict what you say online to things that you don't mind people knowing about (does this seem obvious to anyone else?) then your privacy isn't really at stake. I don't mind people knowing how old I am or what city I live in or who I'm married to. I understand that this is valuable information to some people, but it's also information that I'm comfortable to have in the public domain. Similarly, I quite like my music and film taste to be public, because there's a chance that I could be on the receiving end of targeted ads that could broaden my horizons.

The important thing to bear in mind is that privacy is a huge word and it covers everything about you. If you drew a set diagram of privacy and security in this context, security would be a relatively small subset of privacy, and it's the only thing that's really worth concerning yourself with. If I say on Twitter that I just ate an enchilada, that's me shrinking the size of my privacy set, but it doesn't decrease my security set, so I'm not worried. It's not really surprising to me that Facebook are trying to make money out of the information that people give to them, but I trust that they're not in the business of dangerously impinging on people's privacy - that sort of thing would easily earn them a reputation and that's not good for business. Similarly, if 5% of their user base ruins their lives because they got tagged in a drunken photo and lost their job/spouse/medical licence/whatever, that earns Facebook a bad reputation and that's not good for business.

The key isn't to just abandon ship and become a Facebook martyr - it doesn't solve anything. If you really care, educate your friends. If someone shares something inappropriate that you think isn't going to do them any favours, tell them and tell them why you're telling them. If you're uploading photos and is unflattering/incriminating, think before you upload it and, if you must be a jerkoff, don't tag the culprit.

Finally, most reputable social networks have privacy settings. Study them. Understand them. Check that they work. Go to some of your stuff, copy links and sign out. Can you still access this stuff? Create a control account and check if that can access your links. If not, you're safer to trust. Most importantly, read terms and conditions. No-one reads terms and conditions, but you absolutely should. They're often written in pretty archaic legalese, but persevere and understand. If there's something you don't like, you're justified in leaving (do remember, though, that granting a website a licence to publish the things you upload is not the same as relinquishing copyrights and IP rights).

Disclaimer: I'm not expert on this, but I can exercise some common sense, and I urge everyone to do the same. I am also an idealist. Life's too short to run around worrying about everything all the time, so I conduct myself with caution and common sense so that, in the event I do get bitten, it won't be too devastating.