Countless posts have been written about privacy on the internet. Guides to Facebook Privacy Settings. Privacy tips for Foursquare. Best Practices and Etiquette tips for networks like Twitter.
Everyone loves social media for it’s marketing potential and the sense of connectedness that it brings to friends and fans but when it comes to matters of privacy, they rise in uproar. To that end I quote Pete Cashmore in an article dated October of last year:
Privacy is dead and social media hold the smoking gun.
Privacy Tip(s):
If it’s not meant to be public (now or ever), don’t…
- …post it on Facebook as a Status Update or picture.
- …tweet it.
- …check in on Foursquare (Gowalla or whrrl).
- …blog about it.
- …comment about it on another blog.
Keep it to yourself. Period. Otherwise, it belongs to the internet for everyone to see and for everyone to share.
What are your privacy tips to those using/engaging in social media?
PHOTO CREDIT: Flowingdata.com (hat tip: wzzy)
Great post. Thanks for the reminder.
Just a simple reminder. I think the Venn Diagram says it all. If you don't want something all over the web, keep it to yourself.
When I was in graduate school one of my classes was on privacy and ethics. My teacher said that it's never a secret and thus not private if anyone other than you knows. She went on to say that a good rule of thumb would be 'If you don't want to read about it in the WSJ, then don't talk about it'. That tells you that I'm 'mature'. The internet for public use didn't exist back in the early 1990s, so it was a little easier to remain 'private'.
However, now, pretty much from birth we are creating a digital footprint. Foolishness used to be something your friends would rib you about for months on end. Now, it's public and all over the internet for all to see. Even people whom were never intended.
Your Venn Diagram is truly the key teaching element. Although, I do think they're still a little close. (hehe)
“If you don't want to read about it in the WSJ, then don't talk about it.”
Love it. And it's definitely applicable to the connected digital age that we live in today! Data moves at a much faster pace and connects us to a much more vast audience (strangers and friends alike).
I agree that the two are much more close, but the diagram I think hi-lights an important lesson going back to the words of your graduate school teacher: “if you don't want something out in the open, don't publish it in the public domain for the world to see.”
Sara: thanks for the visit and for taking the time to comment. Hope to see you again soon 🙂
Great post, to the point. I'm working on a post like this actually. Privacy is going to be a HUGE debate moving forward. I'm not sure how private ANYTHING is going to be anymore with all of the phone cameras. I would almost say that if you don't want something to be public – don't do it or say it in public.
Being connected is great and presents an opportunity for marketers. But being connected via social media also means giving up a great deal of privacy.
Bottom line is: if you don't want it in the open, keep it to yourself.
Thanks for dropping by Jeffrey!
Tell that to newspapers who put everything online and is indexed by every search engine. Your 3-year-old daughter's song-and-dance routine was picked up by the Blah Blah Times-Record, and even with parental permission, that was for the paper, not necessarily for the world to see her name and face.
Just sayin. It's not as simple as two circles.
Ari: You're right. The above diagram is far too simplistic. In this case, I'm speaking to the audience that decides to check-in on Foursquare the instant they get to where they're going and then freak out because some stranger says hello. Or the person who posts a status update about how they hate their boss only to get reprimanded at work later (or worse, fired).
A lot of times, we wander around posting things online without giving it a second thought and failing to recognize the reach our little message has.
Ari's right, just because something's said offline doesn't mean it's private. This reminds me of an off-the-wall statement somebody made at a conference and his buddy stared at him and said, “that's going on Twitter man.” But the diagram is absolutely correct in terms of the idea that internet and privacy go like water and oil. As you know Ricardo, that's something I've had to learn the hard way. ;(
I ran across this in search of tools to help with security features with Facebook, you may want to try it out it worked for me.
Free Cloakguard plugin for Facebook available from:
Download – https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/194385/
Demo – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4qN3TBqx08