In This Day Of The Web Is Privacy Needed?
After reading a post at Apple Matters about the current level of anonymity on the Internet and wondered if privacy is needed.It is not uncommon to go by a different name on the Internet which usually follows us wherever we go. While some may not reveal their names, becoming social and revealing much more is needed for many aspects of the Web to function.
While James has a certain level of anonymity in order to protect himself by not putting information where he lives or what he likes, more and more users are doing because the Web was meant to be social.
When you have a massive group of people not afraid to reveal their identities, personalities, likes and dislikes you get more people doing the same because everyone is doing it. Online services rely on social groups to be just that, social with each other in order to function. Why is Myspace or even Facebook so popular? Because by looking at a user profile you can get information regarding that person, the same information you could get by meeting them in real life.
With all these people not afraid to reveal themselves online is the threat of predators really an issue? If someone wanted to attack you using information you provided on the web they would need a unique reason to target you, what separates you from the guy four blocks down? If you are famous on the Internet you can get stalked easily by this method.
And one other important thing James mentions is that you have access to information of average people that was restricted to celebrities and important people. A good example of this is Twitter (I have my thoughts on that and am completing a post about it, will be up very soon), you can find out if Bob is having a Taco or watching TV or even reading this Blog. While this information is useless to many this is what many have used Twitter for which has got others copying them because others are following along. The small amount of space for text can also be blamed because you are only providing snippets of information and what you are doing right now can considered a snippet of info.
Basically you can divide people on the Internet into three groups. People who will hand out their identity and be protected to some extent because the information of other people will be public. People who are paranoid or want an adjustable level of privacy because the Web can allow that. Last but not least, the people who analyze what everyone is doing and making every minute detail in a Blog post.
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