The cost of social convergence
Monday, September 28, 2009 by victoria
I recently had an accident on the motorway with a group of drunk boys on a Sunday afternoon. I managed to call 111 while I was in the car and provided the police with the other car's registration number and description of the boys in the car, when they saw me talking on my cell phone, they realised that I had called the police, and they fleed the scene before the police got there. So I was then advised to make an official report at a station, which I did, but because the police did not catch them at the scene at the time of the accident, it was very difficult for them to pin-point the damage done to my car on one person or as a matter of fact on any person, so the police officer in charge of my case told me that, for him to give me any information on the owner of the vehicle that had damaged my car would be illegal, but I could go to the post office and spend $2.50 and get all the information necessary just by providing the number plate, and then I can pass that information on to the police and they can process from there, which would be a lot easier. So I was quite shocked and amazed that personal information about someone could be so easily accessed, and it made me wonder, and frankly a little bit frightened as well, that some one could also easily access my personal information the same way, that with just $2.50 and my registration number, my full name and address would be given to a complete stranger for any purpose that they may desire.
Boyd has said that "control is lost with social convergence", and that is something I find quite true and quite troubling. If personal information can be accessed so easily in the "real world" that we live in, where there are actually laws and regulations that protect our privacy, can you imagine what it's like in the technological world? Take the internet and Facebook for example, yes, it is true that we can control what we put onto the internet or Facebook page, yes it is true that we can choose how much personal information we want to enclose with others, but we cannot stop other people from crossing that privacy barrier and expose something about us that we might consider as private. Take photos for example, there are so many ways people can take photos these days, cameras are becoming smaller and smaller, and practically every cell phone has a camera option, so we can never be sure when our apparences or actions are captured on camera accidentally or intentionally. And then, maybe they'll be posted on someone's Facebook page, and one day out of no where you find yourself tagged. When we go to a party and take lots of photos with our friends, you can only control the photos you take on your own camera, but the ones your friends take, are completely out of your hands. This has happened to me, I went to a friend's house the other day, and on her computer there was a photo of me in a club, I had no idea when or who took that photo, my friend didn't know who took it either, it was just a photo amongst many other photos that she got off a friend who got it off another friend who took a lot of pictures when we went out. I'm also constantly finding myself tagged in photos by my friends, and if those photos were in my hands, I would never allow public access to them, because they are not of myself looking the best, but I do not have the control to take them down. So I guess that is the negative side of social convergence.
Boyd has said that "control is lost with social convergence", and that is something I find quite true and quite troubling. If personal information can be accessed so easily in the "real world" that we live in, where there are actually laws and regulations that protect our privacy, can you imagine what it's like in the technological world? Take the internet and Facebook for example, yes, it is true that we can control what we put onto the internet or Facebook page, yes it is true that we can choose how much personal information we want to enclose with others, but we cannot stop other people from crossing that privacy barrier and expose something about us that we might consider as private. Take photos for example, there are so many ways people can take photos these days, cameras are becoming smaller and smaller, and practically every cell phone has a camera option, so we can never be sure when our apparences or actions are captured on camera accidentally or intentionally. And then, maybe they'll be posted on someone's Facebook page, and one day out of no where you find yourself tagged. When we go to a party and take lots of photos with our friends, you can only control the photos you take on your own camera, but the ones your friends take, are completely out of your hands. This has happened to me, I went to a friend's house the other day, and on her computer there was a photo of me in a club, I had no idea when or who took that photo, my friend didn't know who took it either, it was just a photo amongst many other photos that she got off a friend who got it off another friend who took a lot of pictures when we went out. I'm also constantly finding myself tagged in photos by my friends, and if those photos were in my hands, I would never allow public access to them, because they are not of myself looking the best, but I do not have the control to take them down. So I guess that is the negative side of social convergence.