Okay, okay. So I’ve had my reality TV fun. I got to finally come clean about my embarrassing prime-time preferences… and now it’s time to move onto something different. But related.
A couple weeks ago I came across an interesting blog. The author, a former sea turtle researcher (I know, right?), had a “run-in” with security guards at a Mississauga community centre. Ultimately, the incident boiled down to a case of he-said/she-said… and, not surprisingly, this woman found herself fighting a losing battle. But the author, Ursula, wasn’t so concerned with her own fate; she was more concerned about what was happening to other Mississauga residents—particularly those who didn’t have the wisdom, the resources, or the wherewithal to question similar “run-ins” with city-employed staffers. So Ursula started a blog, became a fixture at council meetings, and asked a question that no one else appeared to be asking: exactly who is watching the so-called (in this case, the city’s) watchdogs? Who has access to our information—be it security footage from a public library or personal details we post on Facebook?
And here’s something I’d like to know: is this a generational thing—to care about what happens with our personal information? As someone born in the ’80s, I’ve grown up not only in the Information Age, but also in the Information-Sharing Age. I’m not at all surprised to turn on the television and see people peddling their realities for (short-lived) fame and fortune; Candid Camera and American’s Funniest Home Videos were just as much a part of my childhood as, say, Full House or Who’s The Boss. So I’m well acquainted with mass-produced overshare. Jennifer Ringley and DotComGuy (pioneering video-bloggers) were also on my radar growing up—so I’m also unfazed by self-produced overshare. And, of course, I hopped right on that Facebook bandwagon when it started becoming popular in Canada (at that time, with university students). Over the course of four years or so, I shudder to think what I’ve shared with the world. Increasingly, though, I’ve been shuddering to think what I’ve shared with Facebook employees and advertisers. But I’ve only really been thinking about this because I have a vested (that is, academic) interest in the subject. Otherwise, I think my experience with oversharing might have had a desensitizing effect.
So here’s my question: do you think about who’s using and accessing your personal information? Do you wonder who’ll see the results of your last Google search? Do you lie awake imaging who might be reviewing the footage of you sneaking a contraband coffee into the Toronto Reference Library? Or does this not concern you in the least?
8 responses so far ↓
Blair Stransky // October 14, 2009 at 6:32 pm |
What about all those pictures I put up on Facebook? Apparently I don’t lose my rights to them, but I’m always wondering what’s in that fine print of FB allowing them to use as well. Hmmmmmm. Still too much fun to share.
Ben // October 17, 2009 at 2:02 pm |
To be completely honest I never think about what happens to my personal information. I just googled myself after reading your last two posts and found next to nothing of interest. I guess I’m not important enough for google.
Ultimately though, I think the key for me feeling comfortable about the easy accessibility of my information for others over the web is that I never post anything (be it on facebook, youtube, or other) even remotely incriminating or embarrassing. I’m sure there are pictures of me drinking somewhere on the internet for all to see, but there is nothing where I am wearing woman’s clothing or anything. Those are for the vault…
karenaagaard // October 18, 2009 at 1:13 pm |
Last year around Christmas I found a website called “Elf Yourself.” It was hilarious. All you had to do was upload photos of yourself, and whoever else you wanted to “elf”—and *poof!* an e-card was created. And it was completely free. I made a few of these cards… and then I decided to go back to the original website and read the fine print. Turns out, I’d just given the creators of the website permission to use my photos however they saw fit. For promotions, for anything. And I realized that this was the “new” brand of e-commerce. Elf Yourself wasn’t free at all—they’d gotten all sorts of personal information (including photos) in return for letting me, uh, Elf Myself. Same thing goes for Facebook. While you don’t have to fork out any money to sign up, you are granting Mark Zuckerberg and his minions access to your most valuable commodity: your personal information. This information helps the Powers That Be know what kind of advertising might be suitable for you: they know your age, your gender, your entertainment preferences, your level of education, your favourite foods… basically, Facebook is a marketer’s dream. So while your Facebook photos might be safe from appropriation, your personal information isn’t.
karenaagaard // October 18, 2009 at 1:13 pm |
More Facebook info here: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/02/16/zuckerberg-on-who-owns-user-data-on-facebook-its-complicated/
Magda // October 18, 2009 at 2:52 pm |
Since I “quit” Facebook last November, I feel like a much better person. For me it wasn’t so much about the ‘watchdogs’ but about other people stalking me. I know I know, how can I be so vain to think people take an interest in my homely life, well since my life is structured around throwing events, DJ’ing, touring, etc and generally being very sociable (altho grad school has really slowed that down ;oP) I found that people did feel the need to read up on me. I also found myself doing the same. I had to get out of this constant surveillance cycle for my own sanity. No matter what you do, it somehow ends up on facebook and people love to hoard gossip-like information don’t they? Isn’t Facebook one giant gossip factory?
Now, I can’t stand when professors (!!!) send Facebook links to their students. WTF?! So much information now only gets relayed on FB which really frustrates me. This behaviour normalizes and almost forces individuals to take part in social networking, because most people don’t want to be left out when there’s 109403984304 information clusters to read through.
No info left behind.
Steve // October 18, 2009 at 6:07 pm |
“I don’t care what they say about me, as long as they talk about me,” once quipped Mae West. Prophetic words, indeed. Maybe we ough to turn to the celebrated and notorious to understand more clearly how (not) to navigate the digital frontier. Irrespective of all things virtual, the potential for misapporpriation of personal information has and likely will continue to exist. It is our response that changes.
Rachel // October 18, 2009 at 8:30 pm |
I was working full-time at a university when Facebook came into vogue, so my introduction to Facebook was a little different. The response from university higher-ups and staff who worked with students was to question the implications of social networking sites for students (privacy, safety, etc.) – this was fairly uniform across Canada (at least initially). So, I’ve regarded Facebook with a great deal of skepticism. However, when it becomes a mainstream form of communication, how long can you say a Facebook resister? I gave in a year ago when I took a course that used Facebook for resource sharing and discussions. I still don’t post much on my profile, and I don’t always accept ‘friend’ requests (I feel weird about ‘friending’ former students).
Shannon // October 18, 2009 at 11:52 pm |
This summer a friend of mine who works at a publishing house had a woman in for a job interview, and then a few hours later a message popped on Google analytics that someone had mentioned the name of the publishing house in a blog, and so she followed the link and found that the woman she had just interviewed had gone home and blogged about the whole interview experience, including her first impressions of her potential co-workers and employers.
This woman obviously was not appreciative enough of the omniscient surveillance magic provided by Google Analytics, and ended up looking really unprofessional, and ultimately not getting the job, maybe not solely because of her over-sharing gaff, but that certainly didn’t help her case.
All of these new social media platforms do certainly make it easy to over-share, and for information to extend beyond the intended audience. People, and I think young people in general, need to be educated in media literacy in order to understand the consequences of sending their personal information out into the online realm. One of Karen’s discussion questions on her other blog asked who should be responsible for educating people in media literacy. Right now there aren’t really any formal systems in place, we just hope that people will know how to restrain themselves, but that is clearly not always the case. I’m not sure what the right forum for that kind of information is, I’m partially inclined to say that it is something that should be discussed in schools, but it’s really not something that has to do with education in any formal sense. Should we take the conservative Christian approach and say that discussions about facebook are like sex, and have no place in the classroom, or is the issue important enough to be brought into the institution?