In to book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did, Lori Andrews uncovers a vast amount of information related to privacy and security on the web, more importantly OUR privacy. Andrews reveals that a poll found that 61% of Americans believe that information shared online is private and not shared unless requested. Various topics discussed in the first few chapters are eye opening and unthought-of.
In relation to the poll mentioned above, one topic of relevance that impacts students is lack of awareness. Andrews discusses her perspective on the roots of Facebook, college students lacking awareness of future implications of sharing and exchanging information. In reference to current Facebook users, Andrews includes, “They may not yet realize the extent to which their offline self is being overshadowed by their digital doppelgänger.” As technology becomes an integral part of our lives, educators must make it a priority to promote responsible sharing. I’m not only referring to cyber-bullying, but for the purpose of unknown access to personal information and marketing, which is a main motive.
I was more surprised to read the comment by the founders of Facebook, “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.” Andrews argues profit and money, the main motive, is gained through a lust, as she puts it, for information about people’s lives. I found it interesting how Facebook lures their users to provide information without any barriers causing any difficulties, which in turn benefit the company. Andrews makes a specific reference to the Skinner Box, instead of physical rewards the user feels rewarded with likes and attention. It is human nature to feel liked and accepted, but all of this comes at a cost on the web. One must determine what is at stake and set appropriate boundaries. This is aside from the fact that companies unknowingly change their privacy policies from one day to the next.
The section that included the AOL search logs is one example of how it is possible to inaccurately analyze information that is out of context. For those of us who have no bad intentions, this is scary. As I read through the searches it is clear the you cannot judge a person's habits and intentions by these seaches alone. Thought I can see some advantages such as finding substantial evidence for a murder case or stopping terrible acts. One questions remains, where do we draw the line?
References
Andrews, L. (2011). I know who you are and I saw what you did: Social networks and the death of privacy. New York, NY: Free Press.
You mentioned in your post that "educators must make it a priority to promote responsible sharing." I agree that educators have a responsibility to help teach basic internet ethics, responsible sharing, and techniques for maintaining security and privacy.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it should be parents providing the lead role in teaching these 'safe Cyberspace' guidelines. Since children start using computers at home before they even start kindergarten, parents need to teach them safe usage of computers and the Internet. For example, when my children tried out game web sites for kids when they were 4-5 years old, the game sites asked them to create a login name and password and some even asked for the child's real name, real address, age, and email address. Imagine your 4-year old entering that information in and now this has just been added to their digital persona for all to have access to (at some point). Very scary!
Thus, parents need to start teaching their kids 'safe' usage of the Internet at the same time they first allow the child to use the Internet. Parents need to consider monitoring their kid’s time on the computer, what web sites they go to, what emails they send, what sites they sign up for with logins and passwords, and what personal information they are entering on these sites. Assuming parents take the lead on this, then teachers can reinforce this in the classroom every time that students use the Internet. Of course, just as with many things, teachers cannot assume that parents are doing their job (just look at behavioral issues teachers have to address that parents should have) when it comes to safe Internet usage, and may have to take on the primary educator role for these issues.
Another point you mentioned in your post was in regards to the AOL search logs (Andrews, pp. 26-28). Reading the content of some of these log files, you could certainly make some quick assumptions about the type of person they are. For example, from one search log, you would quickly assume the person was trying to escape DUI laws in Florida and from another log that the person was contemplating strangling someone. From a third log, you might quickly assume they had serious mental/physical problems. In the latter case, it came out that the person who typed these searches was looking up this information for someone else and it did not pertain to them at all personally. For me personally, when I was helping to care for my parents in their last few years before passing away, I did web searches for hundreds of possible medical conditions, symptoms, medications, etc. Someone looking at my web search logs would wonder what kind of crazy medical nut case I might be. Thus, as you stated in your post "you cannot judge a person's habits and intentions by these searches alone."
I certainly agree with you that lack of awareness impacts students when it comes to sharing information on Facebook. Certainly, lack of awareness is one of the main problems that harms students’ privacy. However, Andrew (2012) also points out that people not only ignore the possible consequences of sharing personal information on Facebook, but also how powerless users are when it comes to the arbitrary and unpredictable governmental rules of Facebook. (Andrew, page 4)
ReplyDeleteI think is very interesting how you mention that Facebook has a double standard encouraging people to provide information, and rewards users that share information by providing them likes and attention. At the same time, Facebook changes its privacy policies with no warning. I certainly agree with you that there is a legitimate interest of profit behind all of those actions. You mention that positive outcomes can be obtained through all of this information. My question would be: How can we both benefit from this social network and protect our privacy?
Thanks for you post Ana. You make some really important points about the lack of awareness that the vast majority of students have in regards to their digital identity. I agree with your belief that education about privacy and security should be apart of digital citizenship education. I found it shocking to read that one data aggregator has data on 96% of Americans (Andrews, 35)
ReplyDeleteYou also brought up an interesting point in your last paragraph about where do you draw the line with privacy and how data can be misinterpreted. I think that is an important question to ask. I agree with Andrews that it’s time for our laws to catch up with the digital age. These are important questions that need to be asked and addressed.