You don't have to exercise all your rights

MDSB61 – Blog Assignment #1

When someone turns 19, does that mean they’ll immediately start consuming alcohol? In fact, there are some people that will never drink alcohol because of religion or other personal reasons. So clearly some people choose not to exercise specific rights they have. I know I have a right to privacy. However, contrary to what Sherry Turkle believes, I choose not to exercise my right to privacy. Of course there are some obvious and/or extreme examples where privacy is important to me, such as my credit card number and the conversations I have with close friends over instant messaging.

Turkle argues that college students don’t understand that they have a right to privacy and that they are “uninterested” in privacy violations. While I can’t speak for the majority of students, I know many students, such as me, are aware of privacy rights. More importantly, we are aware of how some sites use our information and we simply don’t care.

People say that because of the internet, anyone can find out personal information about you, for example your address. This freaks some people out but have they ever stopped to think why? The obvious reason might be someone wanting to know where you live so they can come break in. Now let’s think about this logically. If a robber wanted to specifically break into your house and the proliferation of digital media hadn’t occurred yet, could he still find a way? Yes! He could physically follow you home, impersonate you or your family to obtain the address, or break into your workplace and check employee records. Who knows, maybe there’s an easier way. If you’re worried that he’ll plan an effective break-in by checking your house out on Google Streetview, think again as he can just drive by your house and take pictures. What I’m trying to say here is that yes the internet does it make it easier to obtain information for a potential break-in but does it give them more incentive? How does the availability of information, at quicker speeds, creative additional motive? I believe some people protest anything that could possibly breach their privacy rights, and instead of focusing on how it affects them, they are only concerned with the idea that their right to privacy has been broken. People have adapted to the growing accessibility of information at rapid rates, so why are they so reluctant to allow their personal information to be accessible (given its not sensitive information)?

Simply put, students are less concerned with trivial information being protected than most people. We are “uninterested” but it’s deliberate and thought out, whereas Turkle makes it seems that we are passive in regards to the issue. To discuss this topic further, I will be using examples from Facebook.

Facebook collects our information. In fact their business model, the way they make money, is based on our information. This upsets people because they believe their private information is being shared, but again have they thought it through or conducted research? Facebook collects your information so that advertisers can target people with the right ads. Let’s say you put in your profile that you like the band Coldplay. If a Coldplay concert is coming to your city, they might advertise by asking facebook to show their ad to people in X City, with a Y-Z age range, and perhaps someone who has shown interest in Coldplay. Whoever is in charge of advertising Coldplay has no idea who these people are and never will. This leads to two points:

1. Facebook keeps your information secure and

2. If somehow someone found out your birth date or that you like Coldplay, it has little impact on your life.

I’ve filled our many contest forms, job applications, and other forms that ask for my name, address, phone number, email, etc. Thinking about it, there’s at least 100 times I’ve done so and I’m not worried about it at all.

You can’t talk about privacy without talking about security, so this is the part where I agree with Turkle. Everything you do online leaves electronic traces and if you’re not careful your privacy may be invaded. It’s important to note that the type of privacy I’m referring to is passwords, credit card numbers, and so on. There is malicious software on the internet that can be secretly installed with other software (say a game you want to play) and unknowingly to you the software will run in the background and perform tasks. One specific type is called a keylogger as it will log all keystrokes you input from your keyboard. How can this invade your privacy? Say you type www.cibc.com in your web browser. It is most likely you’ll enter your account number and password next. The keylogger is able to send its logs to a specific address and then this person now has access to your account.

Now don’t get me wrong, Privacy is important. I’m not saying it isn’t, but privacy is important in only specific situations. The problem is that we don’t realize that. The information being called to in the Facebook example above is not significant at all, yet it’s still heavily protected. Banking information on the other hand is very significant, so we must ensure it’s protected. As we become more ingrained with our digital society, we must open our minds and stop thinking everyone is out to get us. We have to be cautious of the right things. We have to value privacy as something variable, not fixed, and in that way we can feel more comfortable while on the internet. Finally, we have to challenge assumptions. You shouldn’t take something at face value, instead you should try to understand it and then make your judgements, because I guarantee that a lot of perceptions about online privacy aren’t based in fact.

Jonathan