We’ve been hearing about privacy being “dead” for a long time now from people like Sun's Scott McNealy (in 2000), Google’s Eric Schmidt (in 2009), and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (in 2010).
Can all these important people be wrong? Let’s hope so.
There is an interesting progression of companies here. Sun’s (RIP) business was strongly linked to the growth of the Internet, specifically on the hardware side, and it laid the groundwork for many other Web-based businesses. Google and Facebook are among the new breed of companies with Internet-based business models, which are centered on gathering, analyzing, and allowing easy access to information of all kinds -- public and, as it turns out, private, too.
Both Google and Facebook also have practices their users find unsettling. Facebook, for example, frequently changes its Terms of Service. Some users seem to be concerned about content ownership and find Facebook’s privacy settings hard to follow.
Many other companies apply techniques to mine data about their subscriber bases, so such business models are not brand new. In many cases, data mining leads to improved functioning of the business. But there is a fine line here, which is (knowingly?) crossed by many companies when they sell subscribers’ private information to third parties, even in ways that make their users easily identifiable.
Being public with certain things and staying private about others should be a choice individuals make. The Internet somehow made us more lax in this regard. Most of us would not give out personal phone numbers of our relatives and friends to random phone solicitors, but we’ll give up an email address. And we’re even less concerned about advertisers being able to access our networks of family, friends, and coworkers via a social networking site.
On the Internet, companies can use computer power to capture and analyze private information. Individual customers also can apply some extra computer cycles to gain back their own privacy. There is also PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) and similar encryption software for securing communications. For financial information, like credit card numbers, we readily use HTTPS email communications. And now, there are choices such as Diaspora (invitation-only alpha), and the technically inclined can use Diaspora sources on Github to control and secure their social networking “life.” Twice oversubscribed at the funding site kickstarter.com, the Diaspora project is certainly gaining visibility.
Of course, only time will tell if a late joiner like Diaspora can become a major player in the already crowded social network space. But here’s the good news: On the Internet, it is relatively easy for customers to vote with their mouse and switch service providers if feeling mistreated.
— Gábor Lipták has worked as an IT consultant and architect for various enterprises.
nimantha - I agree 100% - a press meeting announcing the changes would be a great thing. It seems that this, unfortunately, isn't usually the case and the only "press" is often users noticing the changes and then airing their disapproval. Clearly, this is not what either you or I are seeking. Unfortunately. It usually gets couched in a "Take a brief tour of our changes to enhance your experience" tutorial.
You are also right on target with the TOU and I'm sure you are correct that even employees of the site haven't read them.
Well what I meant from Educating the users is that the organization running that particular website should do a press briefing about the changes. Then it will capture the readers eye where ever in the world as long as its published correctly through media.
Terms of Use is a useless section where nobody bothers to read and I can bet that not even the staff of that particular website has gone through the Terms of Use page.
Regarding educating the end user - I wonder if such a provision or mandate is in the TERMS OF USE for the sites? I have not read any of them from start to finish (kind of like reading an instruction manual to me - pretty unexciting stuff) but I wonder if such a beast exists.
If it's not in there, I doubt I would stop using a site - but I'm pretty cautious about my posts no matter what the site, again defaulting to the "anyone can see this" mentality. But that's just me.
Ashish - Right ! And Joe's blog today clearly illustrates the point. It leaves me to wonder how much of the posting is due to ignorance and how much is due to exhibitionism. To "cry wolf" after posting something "private" seems a bit like locking the door after the burglar has stolen the silver.
Agreed. I feel that any change that is happening or bound to happen will have some sort of an impact (directly or indirectly) with its users so therefore its always a must to educate the users on what the changes are and how it is going to change things up in the site.
I agree 100% - blaming the networks for our posts (good and bad) is foolish. And if anyone doesn't know that anything you say or do or post may be seen by ANYONE, perhaps you will learn by making a "mistake" - If you are a politician, you may have to resign your position.
Changes in a site's policy on privacy (from a closed to open site) that is a different story and must be made obvious to subscribers.
IMO privacy is not at all an impossibility. True that there are certain things which does expose towards the public but still its in the hands of the users to protect their privacy. we cannot blame the social networks 100% for privacy breaches.
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Social media has been with us for a decade -- but employer policies and the law are anything but firm about the most appropriate usage of this powerful tool.
Businesses often struggle to decide which domain to use. When it comes to purchasing a domain name, you have plenty of extensions to choose from, ranging from .com and .net, to .me, and even .mobi. But which one should you pick?
I've been writing about how the next evolution of the Internet might just be an advertising revolution, and how corporate IT can stay involved as the enablers and providers of the technologies that make this possible.
In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
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