Consider this a link-dump, if you like. I won’t ramble much myself.
I don’t think it’s that people think of the internet as private, neccesarily, but that they just don’t expect it to be used against them. Or perhaps, that it’s so big that they can be just a face in the crowd. But internet privacy issues are becoming bigger and bigger, from getting google searched at the border, to having your Facebook profile checked by university admissions staff to help determine if they should accept your application.
This Times article highlights the issue of search engine anonymity. Though it clearly states that no “private” information was being proferred, doesn’t it feel like that would just be a matter of time?
“These search engines are a very tempting target for government and law enforcement,” Givens said. “Look at the millions of people who use search engines without thinking of the potential to be drawn into a government drag net.”
I’m not a big fan of facebook (I do have an account), but evidently a lot of people are. This story claims facebook has over 6 million active users, and that over 2/3 of them log on daily. And with stats like that, can you blame a college for “keeping an eye” on their students. Yes, and I think you should. It’s easy for college and university administration to forget that students are what keep them in business. So they had a few drinks, in private. So they “threaten” to commmit a crime. On the internet!? Hell, I’ve threatened to do a lot of things on the internet, but you can bet your ass that if someone “disciplined” me for it, I’d bring a lawsuit down on them with an unholy fury. Should students watch what they post? Perhaps. But maybe the administration should try and respect their privacy a bit too, before they scare all the students away. Because then what will they do?
Hit cancel on the login form and you’ll get two paragraphs of this story, which details students rushing a football field and starting something of a “postgame riot”. Campus police were overwhelmed and only managed a couple arrests, but once again facebook came to the rescue, and through posted photos they managed to finger a whole ton of other students. These students were actually breaking the law, so it makes a bit more sense than the previous example. Yet just another story of Student Beware!
This eweek article highlights the story of an Iranian man and resident of Toronto being stopped from entering the US when border guards found out he was a blogger and so googled his name, finding too much evidence that he had been living, without proper documentation, in New York. His blog post about the experience is interesting. It’s from November 24, 2005, so a little old but very relevant to the issue. Sure, it seems obvious in retrospect, but how would you feel if the border guard not only found your blog, but started to interrogate you about each and every post? I know I’d be outraged.
He was ecstatic. My blog made his day, or in this case, his night. He kept reading my posts and asking questions about a lot of them: Why did I go to Iran, what are my feelings about Bush administration, why I separated from my wife, what did I think about Iranian politics, etc.
From this article:
Now that students have grown accustomed to posting every detail of their lives, from the mundane to the torrid, on their profiles, they need to show a little more restraint. On many profiles, discretion takes a back seat to showing off Thursday night’s killer keg stand or commenting on Friday night’s hook up.
Though I totally love this turnaround by some clever students:
At George Washington University, students took it upon themselves to prove that university police were using the Facebook to find and break up parties. They created a “Beer Party” on the Facebook and waited, digital cameras in hand, for police to arrive. When squad cars rolled up, police found students sipping punch and downing cupcakes frosted with the word “beer.”
And facebook isn’t the only “dangerous” public domain. Myspace is, of course, immensely popular, and got these kids in trouble.
Do a Google news search for facebook right now, and you’ll get 332 articles, at a glance most of them about students getting busted by schools for things they’ve posted on their facebook profiles. While you’re there, try searching myspace as well, or livejournal, blog, typepad, friendster, etc etc etc. The social tools available on the internet today are amazing, and they certainly have their uses. But unless federal law steps in with internet privacy laws, expect the people you would least like to see your blog/profile/photos to see them, and act accordingly. Also, don’t forget that myspace and livejournal both have privacy locks you can put on posts so that not just anyone can read them. Until every service offers similar protection, bear in the mind that at its core, the nature of the internet is that it’s public.