Shayna's A-ha...

My a-ha for this week has to do with Internet privacy. It baffles me that privacy is something that we have to strive for in this new social network driven world. Why? Why is it ok for others to know all of my business without me being involved in sharing it? I am on Facebook and was previously on MySpace, and I did share information with my ‘friends’ on these sites. I did not however, provide my address, phone number, number of pets, number of vehicles, ownership status of my home, family income, etc….which is apparently available online for all to see. When did this become ok?

We have watched a lot of videos in this course discussing how wonderful the Internet is; how great it is to have this tool that is managed by the people. People who are all working to keep us plugged in to the information. While I appreciate the knowledge and capabilities that the Internet provides, it is not ok to share everything about everyone. I should not have to search my name to find out what information is available about me so I can try to remove it. I should not have to search my family and friends to do the same thing. I don’t know how others feel about this, but I’m irritated by the entire thing. Ok…I will get off of my soap box now.

If interested, here is a link about internet privacy. It is from 2009, but I still think it fits.

http://http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/13/technology/internet/13privacy.html