Privacy - Giving It All Away

Facebook and other sites on the internet collect our names, the names of our spouses, partners, parents, children, friends, our birth dates, where we live, where we go when we leave our homes, where we work, what activities we enjoy, our ethnicities, where we went to school, where we grew up, details about our health and sexual orientation – quite simply, everything about us.

I have seen a number of employment advertisements lately requiring the applicant to include their Facebook link on their resume or in their cover letter. I find this alarming on a number of fronts. First, this precludes anyone who can not afford a computer or internet access from applying. I'll dismiss this fact early with the recognition that most people without a computer or internet access would not see or even seek to apply for these positions but that doesn't make it right. In general, I'm concerned a lack of access to computers and internet service will leave a sizable chunk of people who want to get ahead behind but that is a whole other post.

I quit Facebook in 2008 before the great surge of people joined. I was alarmed when I joined because no other site wanted as much information from me to set up an account. It went downhill from there. People linked photographs and wrote things on my wall I did not want associated with me. There is a mechanism to remove these things but again and again it did not work. Facebook would not assist me with these problems. They also refused to let me change my name to my initials followed by my last name. They said it wasn't my real name. Really? I have been known as E.L. Devlin many places. Would they give that kind of attitude to E.L. Doctorow? (I'm not saying I compare in a literary sense but hope you get my drift.)

By the time Facebook had become big, I was glad I was not in that arena. I've always been cautious on-line, not nearly as cautious as I know I should be but I accept some times I make trade offs for self expression. I love computers, technology and the internet so something has to give.

I've been dipping my foot in this pond for a long time (in internet chronology) but when I let loose, it has been under a pseudonym. My business is not the internet or anything related to it and I see no reason I should be barred from it. My business IS being discreet with other people's personal information and I do that very well. I believe what I do when I am not being paid by a client or employer should be my concern as long as I do nothing immoral or illegal and as long as I do not bring a client or employer into the equation. Most people don't know what I do even when I tell them. I like that.

Facebook and other sites on the internet collect our names, the names of our spouses, partners, parents, children, friends, our birth dates, where we live, where we go when we leave our homes, where we work, what activities we enjoy, our ethnicities, where we went to school, where we grew up, details about our health and sexual orientation – quite simply, everything about us. Now Foursquare has announced they won't credit check-ins toward badges without GPS confirmation. Even Twitter is getting in on the game by adding location information to tweets based on GPS coordinates. The first thing I did when I bought my smartphone was turn off the GPS. It is bad enough my phone company knows where I am at all times; I should not need to broadcast it to the world if I don't want to.

With a name, date of birth, mother's maiden name and social security number anyone can BE us. By telling someone where you were born anyone can know the first three digits of your social security number. People give banks, utility companies and credit card companies the last four digits of their social security numbers as personal identifiers. How hard is it to figure out the middle two digits from zero to ninety nine? Not very, as this post from Carnegie Mellon pointed out.

Aside from the often addressed concerns of identity theft new media makes our civil rights virtually obsolete. A hiring manager or landlord can decide who they want to hire or rent to, above and beyond capability, good citizenship and credit worthiness. As long as that person is on-line, there is a good probability they will get exactly what they want. Don't want anyone over thirty-five working for you because they generally cost more in wages and health benefits and are hopelessly unhip? Human Resources can screen out those people before they are even called back for a first round telephone interview. Don't want homosexuals or single mothers living in your apartment building because you hold moral judgments against them? As long as the applicant has an on-line profile, you will know them before inviting them to view your property. The beauty of this screening is, the applicant never knows they are in contention for the position or the home and therefore can not prove suit for violation of their civil rights. They are not even aware it happened or that they materially assisted in their own defeat.

There are now aggregator sites which use algorithms to gather information about individuals from various different web sites and public records. These advertise one stop shopping for people seeking complete personal profiles on other individuals. As if being hoisted on your own petard is not bad enough, often the information gathered is inaccurate. In one personal profile which contains a photograph of me, I am listed as an African American Texan in my seventies. I am sure there are times when misinformation could work in one's favour but I hazard to guess that is not the reality for most. I am purposely not naming any of these sites since any publicity can be good publicity. Some of these companies do have mechanisms for removing your information from their site but one article I read on Snopes.com noted attempts to do so yielded no end result other than allowing the company to have yet another email address to add to their database.

It is anyone's guess where this new media dystopia may lead us. Laws have not come close to keeping up with technology and how humans use it. Precedence setting cases are being heard everyday in courts across the world but it is too soon to know whether the convenience of technology will make privacy and civil rights a distant memory. Are you comfortable with these changes? How do you feel about some companies requiring their employees to have an on-line profile? Do you think the trade offs are worth the benefits? Or am I worrying too late because the horse is already out of the barn and in another county?

Image courtesy New School University