Privacy Isn’t Dead…But It’s On Life Support
Michael Bromley | Apr 17, 2009 | Comments 4
The death of privacy is only slightly exaggerated. In truth death is imminent, the question is do we, or should we, care?
The advent of social media coupled with the average teenagers lust for attention means that many things that used to be private to us old folks just aren’t private to the average Gen. Y’er. Over the last few years MySpace, FaceBook, Bebo etc. etc. etc. have seen people (initially kids but now just about anybody) posting their most personal thoughts, images, and attributes for the world to see and judge. While many decry this as the end of civilisation as we know it, I think its the natural progression of things. To some extent the more people present their previously private data the less of a problem it becomes.
We’ve all experienced data overload as our email, text message, and instant message inboxes have become increasingly full. At some point data overload leads to a form of invisibility. You essentially get lost in the data and it all becomes a bunch of X’s and O’s and 1’s and 2’s. In the personal data space data overload = anonymity. Evenutally so much information will be available about so many people that you’ll stop noticing and then stop looking and finally stop caring.
Of course there are notable exceptions. Once the privacy shield drops to a low enough level we could be faced with forms of discrimination based on what we’ve said about ourselves online. For example, health insurance companies might be tempted use facebook entries detailing long histories of alchohol related stories to cancel, modify, or increase health insurance premiums or policies. Its going to happen sooner or later and I predict legislation will eventually be enacted to protect us from ourselves. 
However the point is we’ve been down this road before and the juggernaut can’t and won’t be stopped. If you think back 5-6 years many people were screaming about online credit card purchases being unsafe. In truth, your local waiter was more likely to steal your credit details than an online retailer but it took a few years for people to get comfortable with the idea. Eventually, online shopping grew to the point where the benefits outweighed the risks and now you almost never hear about it. The same thing is going to happen with privacy. Eventually those people who can’t get their heads around the new world (wide web) order will either fade away, stop caring, or just die off! We’ll be left with what Gen. Y grows into and they won’t even remember a day when people didn’t put every last detail of their lives online. Society will adjust, as it always does, and the world will continue to move forward.
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Very True Bromley. Really enjoyed the article!
~Jesse Hoobler
Ever think that privacy is a very modern concept? Human society used to involve very little privacy - lots of people in one room, only sleeping nooks for the privileged etc. Everyone you knew knew everything about you (at least superficially).
I agree that we will move forward on this, to a new concept of privacy, rather than return to the old anonymity - which was actually pretty recent!
Nic,
That’s a really great point. Though if privacy is a recent social construct then it’s imminent death is still likely, just less critical. However, like most things that eventually come back around to a “retro” version there will be differences. Back in the caves you knew everyone in your clan but not the other clans (in fact you likely fought with the other clans) but going forward I think we’ll be transparent to people we don’t know or necessarily like. Thats the part that scared people and that we’ll have to adjust to. Should be interesting, thanks for the comment.
Hi, cool post. I have been wondering about this topic,so thanks for writing.