Privacy in the Digital Age
Monday, September 28, 2009 by mgri067
Not long ago I decided to delete my Facebook account as I was having privacy concerns, such as people tagging me in unwanted photos. When I came to ‘deactivate’ my account, I was asked to choose from a number of reasons as to why I was doing so. I chose the privacy problems option and up popped a window saying that I could alter my privacy settings to make sure I was more protected.
I read this and decided to go through my privacy settings and change most of my options to the most rigorous settings, as even though I do not feel comfortable with all the information that can easily be accessed about oneself via the internet, I did think facebook was useful in terms of having peoples contact details, such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses. As Michael Zimmer says in his article ‘The Externalities of search 2.0’ almost one in four internet users have searched for information online about co-workers and many employers now Google prospective employees before hiring which makes me think twice about commenting on blog and social networking sites (SNS) such as Twitter and Facebook. This has lead me to the conclusion that the now simpler and somewhat ‘out-dated’ e-mail is the way to go.
Even on the web site Trademe.co.nz, you are able to view peoples history of what they have both purchased and sold. I think one must take the attitude that their actions on the internet are public moves, and therefore anything that you want truly kept private should be in best attempt, detached from the digital world.
I read this and decided to go through my privacy settings and change most of my options to the most rigorous settings, as even though I do not feel comfortable with all the information that can easily be accessed about oneself via the internet, I did think facebook was useful in terms of having peoples contact details, such as phone numbers and e-mail addresses. As Michael Zimmer says in his article ‘The Externalities of search 2.0’ almost one in four internet users have searched for information online about co-workers and many employers now Google prospective employees before hiring which makes me think twice about commenting on blog and social networking sites (SNS) such as Twitter and Facebook. This has lead me to the conclusion that the now simpler and somewhat ‘out-dated’ e-mail is the way to go.
Even on the web site Trademe.co.nz, you are able to view peoples history of what they have both purchased and sold. I think one must take the attitude that their actions on the internet are public moves, and therefore anything that you want truly kept private should be in best attempt, detached from the digital world.