No. Really. We do.
We live in an age where our tools have lapped our personal
freedom laws and ethics a dozen fold. A
world where data aggregators; those we let in (Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin) and those we don’t (who use cookies & copies of our emails), record every
keystroke that you type, every search you do and every YouTube video you
watch. Someone, somewhere is taking
note. This is not ‘tinfoil-hat’
territory here; this is real and it is ubiquitous. A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook and the story caught my
eye.
Submitted for your approval,
Gentle Reader, I humbly present to you a podcast from WHYY’s, “Radio Times with
Marty Moss-Coane”. She interviews a
Social network and privacy expert, Lori Andrews, who is, after discovering what
she is about, one of my heroes. WHYY’s
splash page for the interview states, “Social networking sites have the
ability to put us in touch with old friends, help us meet our soul-mates and
even topple governments, but they are also blurring the lines between our
public and private selves leaving us vulnerable to invasions of our privacy.
Social network and privacy expert LORI ANDREWS
says that as we work, chat, shop and date online, many of us are unknowingly
opening ourselves up to surveillance from employers, schools, lawyers, the
police, and even advertisers. In her recent book, "I
Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did,” she exposes the widespread misuse
of our personal online data and proposes a “Social Network Constitution” to
govern our online lives.”
It’s a great interview and I could not recommend it
higher. Before you click over to listen
grab a cup of coffee and make yourself comfy since the interview is about 50
minutes long. It is worth your
time.
Got your coffee?
Good. Now click here: http://whyy.org/cms/radiotimes/2012/03/09/lori-andrews-on-social-networks-privacy/. I’m looking forward to reading Ms. Andrews’s
book.
We seek out new ways of connecting and communicating with
people. Social Media is a new frontier
and the rules that were written at noon change by mid-afternoon. Yet again our principals are being put to
the test. The founding fathers had no
inclination as to the scope of personal freedom as applied to the
internet. Still, those truths still
must be self-evident. Social Media is a
tool and how that tool is used – our behavior and motivation when using it,
defines us. Information is the new
currency, let there be no doubt. The
“Facebook Nation” as Ms. Andrews coined it has a population that if it had boarders
would be the third largest nation in the world. Facebook has its own currency.
Who has your information? Anyone
who wants it, that’s who. The data
aggregators (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_aggregators)
collect the data and sell it. Mark
Zuckerberg created a billion dollar social network around the concept. Information is not only currency but it’s
also power. There are entities out
there that wish to exploit this information and, yet again, we must ask just
who watches the watchmen? Of course
that is a question that we should be asking even if there was no such thing as
the net. Democracy is about free
speech. We should still value
that. Just as we wouldn’t allow cameras
to watch our every move in the privacy of our own home, governments, schools,
the police, and yes, even advertisers should not be able to do the same via our
home computers. You may have allowed Zynga
access to your information so that you could play “Mafia Wars” but did you know
that they sold that information to a data aggregate who sold it to the
Republican Party? Now the GOP knows
everything about you that Facebook does.
Everything. The
legal system has not yet caught up with new and emerging technologies and/or applying the principles that have held our
country together for the last 235 + years to them.
It will happen but by the time that it does will it be too late?
I stand behind Ms. Andrews Social Network Constitution’s
preamble, “We the People of the Facebook Nation…”
I hope I'm not alone.
NOTE: This humble blog is the first in a two part
series. Next up, “We Need a Social
Network Declaration of Independence”
