technoculture314-09

Privacy on the internet has become a major issue in the digital age. We have limited control over some of the things we do online. Once you have posted your information online, it is there forever. New technologies such as cookies, spyware, DRM and many more surveillance technologies are there to track you down, or have a record of everything you do. Facebook is a virtual place where privacy seems to be causing concerns to users in terms of how their information can be taken for some other purposes in the future. For example, photos that have been uploaded on facebook, can never be deleted on the application, even though you can delete them on your personal page, they are already stored in the facebook database. Information from users could be shared around the world and to people you don't even know. We leave data trails everywhere on the net, whether we are conscious about it or not. When we register for a Google account, certain personal details are required, such as names and email address, when we make purchases online, details of our credit cards, home addresses and telephone numbers are all being revealed and they stick there forever. Even though there are privacy settings available in most of the online websites, to a certain degree, you are still being 'watched' by 'some' people, if not all. In the reading, the concept of "Social convergence' has been discussed. This can be applied to online social networks such as facebook where the control of privacy is lost because everyone you know is put together in one network which is more 'dangerous' as the same information appears to everyone. For example, it is difficult to avoid your parents, aunties and uncles from reading comments or posts on your walls that are sent by your friends about you getting drunk last night, also stalkers or individuals who act as 'Culprits', factors that threaten our privacy. So it could be argued that control of privacy is becoming less in the digital age.



A clip I've found on Youtube which is a joke being made about the 'New Google Privacy feature', though it is funny, it also reflects how little we can do about privacy on the internet.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMChO0qNbkY&feature=fvst