New Media and Privacy

When it comes to privacy, new media is anything but.   A topic I discussed in my term paper, new media and privacy have an age old battle.

Never in the course of human interaction have so many shared so much about themselves with so many others—and with solittle apparent concern for their privacy. Was it really just a generation ago that people kept all but their most basic information under virtual lock and key? Today, we happily share our date and place of birth, name of our first pet, mother’s maiden name, favorite movie or book, favorite color, first school teacher—and myriad other snippets of information required by online services as part of their security procedures.

The basic premise behind this information-sharing is nothing new. Consumers have long handed over a little personal information in exchange for services such as banking and finance, utilities, and healthcare. The big difference now is that the information is digitized and accessible online—and we’re handing it out to virtually anyone who asks, regardless of how briefly the business has been in existence. Of even greater concern to many is the amount and variety of information being gathered about us without our explicit permission. Whereas retailers and others used to tweeze out information gleaned through loyalty cards, prize drawings, and catalog mailing lists, now these old standbys have been massively augmented by customers researching and purchasing online, leaving in their wake a digital trail of cookie crumbs detailing their needs, tastes, and desires.

With all the time we spend online and all the forums we frequent, it’s no wonder most of us have grown accustomed to doling out little snippets of personal information with barely a second thought. It helps that we rarely are asked to hand over a whole stack of personal information in one massive data transfer; that would be too much trouble and might provoke too much anxiety. Rather, we routinely hand it out a bit at a time.

The challenge now is to define what and who owns that kind of information. Does the government have the authority to check our FaceBook pages and see our messages?   Can a company give your information to another one without your consent?