danah boyd writes in the closing paragraph of a beautifully brilliant rant:
Zuckerberg and gang may think that they know what’s best for society, for individuals, but I violently disagree. I think that they know what’s best for the privileged class. And I’m terrified of the consequences that these moves are having for those who don’t live in a lap of luxury. I say this as someone who is privileged, someone who has profited at every turn by being visible. But also as someone who has seen the costs and pushed through the consequences with a lot of help and support. Being publicly visible isn’t always easy, it’s not always fun. And I don’t think that anyone should go through what I’ve gone through without making a choice to do it. So I’m angry. Very angry. Angry that some people aren’t being given that choice, angry that they don’t know what’s going on, angry that it’s become OK in my industry to expose people. I think that it’s high time that we take into consideration those whose lives aren’t nearly as privileged as ours, those who aren’t choosing to take the risks that we take, those who can’t afford to. This isn’t about liberals vs. libertarians; it’s about monkeys vs. robots.
Being scared of the privacy issues was what made me leave Facebook two years ago.
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Ouch, well said by Danah.
We should probably start receiving internet privacy classes in primary school already, the way it’s looking!
Google’s in a new scandal todayl http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/technology/16google.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Good on you for avoiding FB, (did you manage to cancel it eventually?) but is it the case of ‘you can run, but you can’t hide’ with the growing gap between internet users and developers?
I want to maintain a certain control on the things that are out there about me. Yes, it is probably really important to start giving classes to kids about privacy on the internet. Privacy does not only mean what one has online about oneself, but also who has access to it, how it is used, and what it is used for. I am sorry, but Facebook makes it difficult to know this.
Yea, I managed to have them delete my account eventually. The interesting thing is that I couldn’t do it myself. They had to do it for me.
Thanks for the Google link. I rely heavily on Google, and in a sense, I feel safer with them. At least they are not busy mouthing off that Privacy is dead, and you could see how much of you is with them. The fact that Google disclosed that they gathered the Wifi information is itself something to be acknowledged – which does not mean that they should be excused.
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