ASK AWAY
INFORMATION
CONTROL
WITH EVERYONE SHARING INFORMATION EVERYWHERE ONLINE, CAN WE FINALLY SAY PRIVACY IS DEAD?
cial interest in ensuring it dies. We struggle with how to respond, talking about legisla- tion, ethics and human rights.
P
Instead, I’d like to say yes, privacy is dead. Privacy as secrecy has been on its deathbed for years. The Internet accelerated its demise by providing a place for us to openly discuss our sexual choices, medical treatment deci- sions, and yes, cereal options. Lots of us take the opportunity to post every feeling online. Behavioural economists suggest this may
be due to optimism bias; the idea that people radically underestimate the likelihood that bad things will happen to them (e.g., “Mary had her identity stolen, but that wouldn’t happen to me despite my prolific Blippy postings.”) Yet, we see open hostility when Facebook changes its privacy policy, and lots of dis-
rivacy advocates are often told about the futility of their cause — usually by people who have a significant finan-
cussion about the U.S. Library of Congress archiving Twitter feeds. It’s even got so bad that American high school students willingly change identities online to protect them- selves from enthusiastic college recruitment officers. So it seems that a strong notion of privacy remains.
I’d suggest that while privacy is dead, the
notion of information control heightens daily. I may post photos of my scantily clad body on Facebook, but when I want them back I want them permanently deleted. The obligation of Facebook to do so may be called data protec- tion, information management or just good business. But the name doesn’t matter — the actions do.
Tracy Ann Kosa is an inde- pendent privacy researcher in Toronto, Ont. She can be reached at takosa@
bell.blackberry.net.
INTEGRATED
Member of
WWW.SECURITYMATTERSMAG.COM
MAY/JUNE 2010 • SECURITY MATTERS 29
L
A
S
B
E
O
I
R
R
A
O
T
H
T
O
A
I
O
R
E R D
M
O
S U
B
A
B
D A
L
L
A
E N A
O
A ’ N
D
S D
G
C S
E
A A
E F
R
T
S
U
T O
S
S
É
I
I
U
P
R
L
R
A
W
E
R
R
U
E
R S
D
Y
C
O
AD
U
N
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42