Privacy or the lack thereof
I hate to say it, but anyone who is writing anything on the Internet has effectively given up to right to privacy. So why complain about Google’s crawlers meticulously indexing all the information about you? I have been stunned at times to see my most mundane post being picked up by these bots, google my name and you’ll know who I am, what my interests are, what classes I taught, what comments I posted on blogs, what e-mails I sent to “private” listservs, and even what I ate last night. Seeing this kind of transparency never ceases to surprise me. Every time I realize that some new information is added to the database, I set something somewhere “private.” But you never know where it is going to hit you. I was shocked to see my private e-mails to SL Educators list on the Internet. Assuming everyone knew this, I even debated whether I can use the comments there in my own research without asking permission. When I did ask for permission to, to my better judgement, I realized that other members were just as oblivious to the fact that their posts were being broadcast to the entire world. When I posted comments on Henry Jenkin’s blogs, the next day my comments were at the top of Google search list. Last month I saw that all of my silly Twitter updates were all over the Internet, immediately set the setting to “private.” Now Facebook is going public with profile, so I turn that off too. It seems, the more careful you get, the more susceptible you are. Under all these privacy settings, I feel totally naked. Because somewhere I overlooked something, for sure. Danah Boyd’s recent blog post, controlling your public appearance online
, says that she’s been receiving complaints from her readers that their comments on Boyd’s blog are coming up at the top ranks of Google search. Is it her responsibility to make sure they don’t by resorting to tricks? Not really. If you post a comment on any blog, if you yourself blog, if you send an e-mail to any listserve, or posted your pictures online, you have surrendered your right to privacy. I like to think of it as selling your soul to the devil.
The bad thing about the Internet is that it is like an elephant: it remembers. The bastard never forgets. As I noted before, it is the harshest reputation building tool. One person writes something bad about you and it stays there forever. Or you post one angry comment, it stares at you like an eyesore. One silly comment on Twitter, it is right there up the rank. What is worse is that these comments are taken out of context. So you were joking around with a friend and jokingly called him a name on Twitter, the context is deleted, and your off-color comment remains.
What’s Boyd’s answer? Blog incessantly so that the not-so-good images of you get buried under recent entries, comment on others’ blogs responsibly, say no to Facebook’s public profiling, and treat video just like text because indexing them is only a matter of time. I think these are smart suggestions. Surely the Internet is changing the meaning of privacy as it is changing the meaning of copyright. Why don’t we sell our souls to the devil so at least we get a say in what appears.
