Privacy and Security

Almost every day I post something on Facebook. It’s generally something unimportant to most people who read it: perhaps some information I came across that I found particularly interesting, or just a gripe about something that happened in my life. It’s not uncommon for me to come across people who post everything they do or think about. This is not only obnoxious, it’s also dangerous. You are giving away information to people, many of whom you don’t know as well as you think you do, and many of whom you don’t know at all. While most of this information is harmless and boring, knowledge of your whereabouts can be threatening to your personal security.

Hasan Elahi gives a story of how his life was affected by the FBI and how he realized that the government can find out all about you from what you post on the internet. Another news story talks about how someone posted that they would be away at a concert and her home was robbed by one of her Facebook friends while she was gone. Bruce Schneier makes the point that because the internet is something you are exposed to frequently, it is something that we feel secure about. And our sense of security does not always relate to how secure we really are. People just aren’t aware that anything you post on the internet is (generally) neither secure nor private

A general rule for posting information should be to not post anything that you wouldn’t want everyone to know. The internet is not a private place; it’s a place for the spread of information. When I stop to think about it, however, I feel that the spread of information is often a good thing if people are wise enough to not do something stupid and to realize that not everyone out there is a good person – but these are the same issues that arise in the outside world as well.

Information is also dangerous to the idea of ignorance. I work with undergrad English Language Learners in other countries, communicating over the internet. Often times we’re friends on Facebook. This is because it’s not a bad medium for learning a lot about someone and their culture in a short period of time. A simple comment of “there are a lot of trees where you live” shows more than one might think at first. A post about how great Barcelona’s “football” team is shows that this student (in what is considered a less-developed country, outside of Europe) keeps up and is interested in world sports. The seemingly irrelevant thoughts and opinions of people from other cultures tells us more about them than reading a textbook on their culture in a much quicker and far less boring way.

Information in itself is often a good thing in most situations. The internet has the potential to both bring people together and tear them apart. The problem arises when people expect privacy when they post things on Facebook or any other part of the internet. It’s designed for sharing information – not hiding it. Problems have arisen for governments when information is leaked, yet the general population always wants to get that information. I suppose the question here comes down to whether you think government should be allowed to work in secret. As a stubborn critic, I am all for transparency.

As a teacher I can explain these concepts to my students. I can tell them about the positive and negative features associated with the openness and freedom of information on the internet. This serves to reinforce the NETS-T Standard 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility. Students can learn that the internet is not a safe place to say anything they want to say without restrictions. Students can also learn that information gathered from sites such as Facebook can be useful to understanding the cultures of other people.

• Posted in: Uncategorized ♦ Week Two
• Tagged: Privacy/Security, Week Two