Blogging is part of the Web 2.0 phenomenon. As bloggers we say and share a lot about ourselves, or at least about the public persona we want to put out there.
One of the social networking sites that is part of Web 2.0 is Facebook (background wiki). Business Week posted a story titled: Facebook Learns from Its Fumble.
Facebook members are upset because a new feature added to the site aggregates and distributes information they have posted about themselves. It aggregates this information out to people they have already chosen to share with.
The reaction of at least 90,000 Facebook members was negative. For the life of me I wonder why? Was seeing all your information in one place, in all its glory, too much? Perhaps they prefer that people visit their individual sites to gather the data – ’cause the visitors need to know everything they think about. See me, feel me…
The Business Week article notes that privacy protections at Facebook are very tight. Because of the tight controls people ‘feel secure.’ Guess what, you are not secure. It’s kind of like engaging in pre-marital sex. If you don’t want to become pregnant and you don’t want to get a disease, don’t do it.
If you are all so holier-than-thou about your personal privacy then get a clue —“ don’t post anything about yourself and please keep your opinions to yourself (or only share them with family members and friends one-on-one (you know, meet people, call them).
The right to have a public opinion means that you have to stand up in public and voice that opinion. The point of crafting a public persona is lost if you don’t stand up in public and build that persona (and hopefully you are honest about who you are).
If you want absolute privacy, here are some tips:
- Don’t open a bank account,
- Don’t apply for a credit card,
- Deal strictly in cash,
- Don’t register to vote,
- Don’t own a home or car or anything of value,
- Don’t go to school,
- Don’t buy a domain name,
- Don’t build a website, blog, or join a social networking community. Even if you think you are anonymous a quick look at the code behind your site can reveal quite a bit,
- Never get listed as a family member in someone’s obituary, wedding announcement, or other life event,
- If you contribute to charity do it in cash and don’t let them know who you are,
- Don’t go to a doctor or dentist.
and…
I could go on for a long time.
Most of all remember that if you play fast and loose with your ‘personal’ data, anyone, including your fellow Facebook friends, can copy and distribute your stuff. Do you think they will say, ‘Ooops, I violated the user agreement?’ If they are doing such a thing it is out of malice. You are harmed, they may not care. You could get all mad and track them down and sue them. Yeah, right, the cost/time/hurdles are prohibitive, and no one believes in objective truth or ideals anymore anyway.
Once you put yourself out there you are in the public eye. Sure, if you’re like me not a lot of people are going to read what you think, but guess what, you are out there.
It all comes down to balance. As a Web 2.0 lurker, or even as good old fashioned html coder, you need to balance the kind of pride that makes you think you are the center of the world with the right desire to engage in community, to care, to laugh, to think and to grow…
