Rethinking Privacy Part 1

Morville's chapter five made me a bit more aware--and thus more paranoid about what the future holds for privacy.

To be honest, I've never understood why so many people are paranoid about their privacy. For example one of my teachers is angry that Ball State tracks when you are in the gym. At a glance that looks like an invasion of privacy, but what does privacy even mean?

As a society we like our privacy, but years ago before cars puttered around and expanded our living radius to more than 20 miles, communities were just as intimate. They knew who you were, where you were and what you did.

I think the issue here is what people do with your information. When my professor said he was enraged about Ball State's tracking system, I didn't see it from the same point of view. Despite our best efforts, we are going to become more "findable." I think the important thing is what is done with the information. Honestly, I doubt Ball State actually cares about you. They don't care whether you are in the gym or not. They don't use it to track you as a person, just to see how many people are in the gym.

Another example of privacy invasion is airport security with the new x-ray system. People feel like that is an invasion of privacy, but if the trade off of that is to stop terrorists, I'm okay with that. I can suffer having strangers who will never see me again be able to see the outline of my body.

Again, I think an important matter is to determine what the government/businesses are using your information for. People don't like security cameras, but it helps deter crime. If someone kidnaps me, I'll be thankful that they will be able to find the last place I was seen. These are rare circumstances, but they happen. Overall, the government/businesses don't care about YOU, they care about information to make their business run better and more efficiently. They aren't stalking you.

We need to rethink privacy because unless you plan on living like a hermit, our idea of "privacy" is going to be invaded on a daily basis.

With that being said, there is another type of privacy invasion that is different from observation by strangers: Invasion of privacy by parents/family/friends. While the government doesn't care about you, being tracked by family members has a whole new meaning. They DO care about where you are and what you do. For me personally, that's the real "invasion of privacy," not Ball State tracking my location every time I swipe my ID card.

Because this is such a big issue, I'm going to split it in to two blogs and post the second part next week. In Part 2 I will talk about the other type of privacy invasion by family and friends, specifically concerning tracking children/teens with a GPS tracker.