Digital Privacy: If You've Done Nothing Wrong, Do You Have 'Nothing to Hide'?

Plenty of people will tell you that you don't really care, or shouldn't care, or need not bother caring, because the protected space of our personal lives disappeared in the olden days of the 1990s. These people do not have your interests at heart. They depend on the hope that you'll forget about privacy the same way you forget about that camera in the elevator. Oracle's Larry Ellison ( "the privacy you're concerned about is largely an illusion") is the guy who wants to supply software for a national ID system. Facebook's Marc Zuckerberg (there's no more "social norm" of privacy) owns a multibillion dollar business based on extracting your intimate details. (Here's an illuminating graphic that shows how Facebook does it.) Google's Eric Schmidt, whose company depends on promiscuous data collection, endorsed the FBI equation of secrecy with wrongdoing: "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Everyone has something to hide. Privacy is relational. It depends on the audience. You don't want your employer to know you're job hunting. You don't spill all about your love life to your mom or friends. You don't tell trade secrets to your rivals. We don't expose ourselves indiscriminately, and we care enough about exposure to lie as a matter of course. Among upstanding citizens, researchers have consistently found that lying is "an everyday social interaction" (twice a day among college students, once a day in the Real World). Remember the disasters that befell Jim Carrey in that movie plot that left him magically unable to fib for even one day? Comprehensive transparency is a nightmare.


Self-protection is a powerful instinct -- we try to safeguard our families, reputations and careers -- but instinct alone won't protect you in cyberspace. Digital security is full of trade-offs, a shifting balance of risk and cost and convenience. Your choices will depend on the stakes and threat as you see them.

This Semester.....

This disclaimer has nothing to do with the following post but I just wanted to post Dec. 1 because my birthday is in twenty-five days. Let the parade commence….you may continue.

My reasons for wanting to go down this EMAC path became ever clearer over Thanksgiving break. I went with my mom to get her hair done on black Friday. The woman was talking about her and hair. She went on to ask me what I do and once people hear that you’re in school they go on to ask the usual questions. What are you majoring in? Really? What do you want to do with your degree once you’re done?

I told the lady about my interest in EMAC and how my ten year goal is to start a magazine geared towards minority youth. I told her that I chose EMAC because it studies all sorts of new media and the impact they have on society. The lady then went on to tell me that she has brought several books to improve the quality of her businesses Facebook statues. I was like really… She told me that basically what I studying is what she is trying to learn now.

That got me thinking about businesses that have been around before the internet came into play and how they’re readjusting to this new and constantly expanding digital age. They could go back to school but most don’t have time for that so they buy books such as Facebooking for dummies, books about putting out quality statues, books about how to reach the consumer and bring them online.

This goes on to say that there will always be a job opening/position for those studying new media because most older companies don’t have time to go back to school but instead hire someone to do it and bring their company into the digital community.

Knowing that others outside of the program find what I study and research interesting just as I do is sort of like an energy boost. I came into this program open and willing to learn about new and evolving social media/ networks/digital communities. With this new understand it has even caused me to focus in on what I really want to do with my life. From the readings to the blogs to the tweets to the constant research has opened me up to so many new possibilities.

Questions:

1. How has the program impacted your life and/or way of thinking?

2. How does the knowledge that you will acquire at the end of this program effect your current or future employment endeavors?

3. What do you want for Christmas?