Privacy Vanishes Online

I found an article from the New York Times titled HowPrivacy Vanishes Online. The article discusses how many people expose so much information about themselves through Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. I think this is true for most internet users. Often times people expose themselves way too much on social networks and online in general. I can think of many times when I was completely appalled at something someone posted on Facebook, whether it was an ongoing fight on someone’s wall or personal information that people shouldn’t or wouldn’t want to know.

Another point the article discussed was that computer scientists and experts believe with the copious amounts of information provided via the internet, computers can recreate a person’s identity down to a social security number. Studies have shown that these experts are in fact correct leaving many people uneasy. I think this scares me more than anything. I know I have provided information multiple times online and to think a computer could figure out my exact social security numbers freaks me out. I think if more people were aware of this they would be more cautious when doing anything online.

The article expressed the fact that although we may not be the ones putting our information online our friends and colleagues might be. Like many of us know there are many ways people can put information without us even knowing through social networks and other online sources. This can often lead to dangerous situations if predators know your exact location or specific information about you.

One of the last points made in the article that stood out to me to most was “When you’re doing stuff online, you should behave as if you’re doing it in public.” I think this is good strategy to go by when doing anything online whether it is researching, social networking or blogging. I think parents and teachers should enforce this with their children. I think adults should also set good examples for their children when it comes to the internet.