The Internet that began as a place of near total anonymity (one where no one knows you’re a dog) is in the midst of a pendulum swing to the opposite extreme. No longer is online life shrouded in ambiguity, instead it has become a place filled with people. Friends, family, co-workers, getting online is now more like a huge party with everyone you know. A party whose front door are sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Likes and postings on our homepages in many ways now determine the types of sites, news stories and videos we see, read and watch. But is this much access to the thoughts of others a good thing?
There is a darker side to the personalization of the Internet. One that, rightly, has many people worried about a privacy that they once took for granted. This conundrum comes from the Internet’s struggle to find balance between its users competing desires for both privacy and individual identity.
On one side of the argument you have people like Mark Zuckerberg, who believe that the more connected and transparent the world is the happier its inhabitants will be–that is, it’s fun to see what your friends are doing across the digital landscape; what they read, what they buy, who they talk to, ect,. And at the end of the day, no one’s forcing you to share anything, right? Plus, why wouldn’t you want people to know what you’re doing unless you have something to hide, huh?
This can start to sound very similar to the old justification for secret or moral police. Professions that, interestingly enough, don’t always attract the most moral people. When we give people so much power over the information, which in many ways helps to define us, it gives way to the big brother question; who watches the watchers? Also, though no ones forcing you to share your information, the history of Microsoft, Facebook and others show that companies can be a bit less than transparent in ways in which they use your data.
In spite of this, it has in the past, and in the future will continue, to be about money. The reason companies like Facebook are able to make money is because the information they have on their users is gold to advertisers. Those targeted ads–for everything from Security degrees from barely accredited schools to the best abs of your life to great ways to meet Christian girls- they are the price we pay for a free service. So while we all may complain, at the end of the day we would rather endure buxom anime elves telling us to join the best game of the year than paying a monthly membership fee.
So, while free services and ads may inextricably linked for the near future, that does not mean that your privacy is at immediate risk. Just like its our choice to put information about ourselves on the Web, it is also our choice what sites we use to do so. If it turns out Facebook can’t meet its member’s privacy needs there are literally dozens of other sites waiting to fill the vacuum. At least to some degree, the power is in the hands of the people.
The amount of data we store in the many niches of digital ecosystem continues to swell in both volume and value. It is for this reason that services like Entrustet’s Account Guardian are becoming more and more of a necessity to protect your online legacy and ensure it gets to who you want it to. And, unlike social media, Account Guardian is both free and we keep your information completely private.
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- online privacy
