Online Privacy

So, you set your Facebook profile to private. As private as you can possibly get. You assume only your friends/family can see everything you post and what's going on your life. Truth of the matter is, there are several ways around that "privacy" mode, and others can easily access your page if they wanted to. Makes you wonder, just how private are any "privacy" settings online?

In an article titled, "How Privacy Vanishes Online" it explains how so much of one's personal information can unintentionally be placed on their Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc. It even goes as far to say that this information can "increasingly be collected and reassembled by computers to help create a picture of a person’s identity, sometimes down to the Social Security number." It also explains how personal relations with friends & families can be more revealing than we think.

So, basically what the article is saying is that privacy online really isn't privacy. The Internet is so huge, so popular, so heavily used, of course our information can be accessed somehow.  After reading this article I feel it is important that people are aware of the so called "privacy" settings on a social networking site, or any thing online for that matter. People cannot get upset when they willingly share as much as they do, even if they think it's just with friends and family.

In the article it mentions something about behaving online as you would in public, since it generally is public. I couldn't agree more with this statement. Most people wouldn't share every deep, dirty or unknown secret in their life with the world, so it's probably a good idea to not share it on the Internet. We live in a time where we have less and less privacy, and in the Internet is probably one of the last places we can get it.

Just look at websites such as Spookeo.com, Mylife.com. If you haven't heard of these sites, they are include people's personal information such as full name, address, city, state, marital status, income, age..you name it. How did they get this information? Your email, facebook, twitter, blogs, places you shopped online. This is why these social networking sites are free, because sites such as Spookeo pay them to get YOUR information. So, next time you post a tweet or your next Facebook status, think twice before you post it.