Death of Privacy

What a great topic!

First and foremost, I’m sorry to hear about your Dad. That’s a tough thing. It also demonstrates exactly what you’re talking about. Here you are video blogging on your corporate web site about a very personal family matter. Transparency.

I think anyone who has looked at the social networking phenomenon has come to the question of privacy. I’ll admit that at first I didn’t get it. When I first looked at Twitter, for example, I said, “Cute. Kids’ll like it. I can’t see the business purpose however, and besides, do I really want to know when Meghan McCain goes to bed every day?” But then the whole micro-publishing angle went off like a thousand LED environmentally safe light bulb above my head. Next question? Privacy. How much of my life do I really want to share with anyone who cares to look.

I had experimented with social media (but never inhaled) for years. I wrote a column called AppleBits years before the word blog was invented, and often didn’t resist the temptation to include personal information in those columns. I experimented with a political blog under an assumed name, afraid to put myself that far out. I hated the whole alias thing.

But when I decided that I would be visible on my website, and my blog, and facebook, and twitter, and linked-in, and elsewhere, I had to ask myself some simple questions. The first is what is my purpose. If it’s exhibitionism, then all is fair game I guess, but if it’s business, then you need to ask the question not only of what kind of information will get you business, but what kind of information will lose you business. Do potential customers care if I’m a flaming liberal or a staunch conservative. The answer is they might. That’s not to say that you’ll necessarily steer clear of politics, but you do need to note the potential consequences.

Another question is one of family and friends. On my blog I tend to wax philosophical. But if I’m ruminating on the meaning of life, based upon my experience, then am I going to embarrass my kids, or shock my friends. I decided my life is pretty much an open book anyway, but I will admit I think about this when I review what I wrote, and I do try to always review what I write before publishing it.

Then, of course, there’s the question of perspective. Those drinking photos which were funny when you were twenty aren’t going to be so funny when you’re looking for a job at 30, or running for Congress at 40. I’d phrase this question as, “Will I want this re-published on MSNBC when I’m 40?” Luckily, from my perspective on 40 that’s not so much of a concern.

Finally, there’s a question that’s not talked about enough. Does what I’m writing subject me to criminal activity. Follow someone on Facebook or Twitter for a week and you’re likely to learn when they’re home and when they’re not, what town they live in, whether they have kids and their names, their pets’ names, where they work, what their position is and consequently about how much money they make. Social networking crime has heretofore focused on sexual predation of kids, but I predict we’re in for a whole new class of social networking crime. The safeguards are there, pretty much, as far as policing your social network accounts, but being SO out there is SO new that I suspect many people are not thinking along these lines.

Anyway, as I said, this is a great topic, and I love a great topic. Give me another couple thousand characters and I’d drone on about the potential positive societal and moral implications of social networking. I’ll save that one for my own blog. That way you can not read it if you want. ;-)