Once my initial pity at the unsuspecting victim of online privacy passed, I began to think about how often this kind of thing must occur. In an age when people are taught to expose themselves to strangers on social media platforms, privacy has grown to become a central issue for many people on the web. But many people clearly are unsure of the repercussions resulting from such blatant self-promotion, and do not pay sufficient attention to how visible their private information is on the web. As the above anecdote goes to show, privacy settings are crucial to ensure that people don’t unintentionally expose themselves.
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| Image: Dave Pearson; Attribution-NonCommercial - No Derivs 2.0 Generic |
So, what is privacy?
A great definition of online privacy which explores the social ramifications of the issue comes from Danah Boyd in her article, “Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck: Exposure, Invasion, and Social Convergence”:
Yet, privacy is not simply about zeros and ones, it is about how people experience their relationship with others and with information. Privacy is a sense of control over information, the context where the sharing takes place, and the audience who can gain access. (2008: 18)
The boundaries of what remains confidential, private information and what becomes public knowledge are greatly overlapping in online networks, to the detriment of the individual who wishes to remain an anonymous user of the internet. When this sense of control over the information is lost, and the contextual boundaries of who can access this knowledge are breached, a sense of vulnerability and invasion can ensue (Boyd 2008:14). While having an open, public profile on social media sites can help initiate the online user into new networks and relationships, I believe it’s important that users remain cognisant of the fact that personal information shared can have broader social implications, and that users are not necessarily afforded “security through obscurity” in online settings (Boyd 2008:15).
Compounding this fact is the medium itself, which encourages parrhesia and uninhibits the individual. As this unbelievable case from the United States shows, where a woman found out about her husband’s secret wedding on Facebook, a willingness to share our lives online can ultimately lead to information ending up in the wrong hands. When online, we are able to call upon several identities to suit our audience and the topic of discussion at any given time. However, the normative and contextual cues that dictate how people act in a given social setting disappear whilst online, as users are required to “handle disparate audiences simultaneously without a social script” (Boyd 2008: 18). As Clay Shirky claims in the video below, all that is becoming accessible is seen as acceptable within online social networks:
This becomes particularly problematic for those who wish to anonymously speak truth to power, as the actual level of protection they are afforded through the medium becomes unclear. A further motive for being anonymous online would be to protect one’s privacy at a time of hyper-surveillance by marketers and employers alike. Alison Hearn suggests that projects of defining and promoting the “branded” self on social media sites such as Facebook are “singularly focused on attracting attention and acquiring cultural and monetary value” (Hearn 2008:123). Thus, when the information sharing is only occurring in a one-way flow, and the data is used for political and economic ends, then users must be aware of how to improve their privacy, particularly if they are dealing with sensitive data as our anonymous target user group will be.
Accordingly, our website should strive to emphasise how anonymous users of the internet can maximise their privacy to avoid being unmasked. This could include a ‘How-to’ guide explaining the ins and outs of:
- Hiding the user’s IP address
- Adjusting their proxy settings
- Limiting privacy settings on social media
