Here’s a read from the New York Times that you might want to check out.

I’ve been sitting on this post for some time now but I suppose this is a social issue that is pretty relevant.

As bloggers, I think there are a few golden rules to abide by where information, especially that which involves other people, is concerned. While you delude yourself into thinking that some semblance of privacy still exists, I beg to differ.

It’s about respect, really. The point is not everyone is comfortable with posting their lives online.
Make sure you know who amongst your friends does not want their pictures circulating on the internet or appearing on random search engines. And honour that trust. I happen to find blurring select photos of people in a group photo, and posting the picture anyway rather irrelevant. How hard is it to find out who was present, at what event, and where? Not very.

Time is such a commodity nowadays. Blogs are the lazy way out. Someone could tap into your open journal and learn more about yourself than another friend who has interacted with you superficially for the last 5 years. It’s friendship the Gen Y way, and the listening ear/eye, without the commitment of old, aka having to actually be physically present and interacting with your friends.

Needless to say, I think that many have found out the hard way regarding issues of privacy in this age of Web 2.0. Another golden rule: If you don’t want it to be seen, don’t take photos of it. I cannot count the number of scandals that the tabloids love to exploit.

Put simply, if you don’t want it to be seen, don’t do it. Celebrities are not the only ones who fall prey to this. Everyone has their (accidental) chance to obtain their 15 mintues of fame nowadays. Think about all the videos of UK school kids and their lynching episodes. Teachers abusing their tech savvy students. Everyone owns a mobile device with some sort of recording function nowadays. It is relatively harder to document an event that never happened, so don’t make it easy.

Don’t make racial slurs. Reiterate point about respect.

“Don’t talk to strangers“, your mom cautioned when you were younger. That advice is becoming more and more obsolete by the day. How many of our young people are engaged in multi player online games, teaming up with random strangers from all around the world? It is no longer enough to just caution against physical interaction with online predators, but rather, teaching them about how to be discerning about the information that they offer up.

Streetwise no longer simply refers to not taking candy from random people on the streets, because candy now comes in many different forms. The chance to win a house, a mobile phone? You’d willingly give up your personal details such as your name, address and phone number.

It would be a gross over generalization to stereotype the young as those who are not prudent about these issues. Mothers are also guilty of this, posting pictures of the places that they take their beloved babies to, their routines, their hangouts… all of this easily accessible (and highly detailed) information on blogs and the likes.

There is also the issue of responding to something you’ve read online. If you read entries about spousal abuse, drug habits that have spiraled out of control, or any other behavior on an open blog, the question is, are you compelled to do something about it, especially if you know the blog author? Those posts are cries for help, and how severe should the issue be, and do you wait till it is too late to turn over the situation to someone who can intervene correctly?

Just like the web is changing how people interact with each other, so the must the rules of discernment evolve with the changing landscape. It is not in the Gen Y mental physique to worry- and why should they? They have never been able to identify themselves as possible victims, having never gone through major hardship.

I’ll end with a link to another perceptive piece.

So how much of your life are you willing (or supposed) to share online? And what are you trading your privacy for?

Tags: privacy, web 2.0, facebook, online, internet, sociology,