Thursday, August 19, 2010

Privacy: Not just for people who are doing bad things

I'm happy to see that Gizmodo is already recommending that people disable Facebook Places in as much as you really can.  And the article has a nice step-by-step on how to limit the amount your friends can (accidentally or intentionally) violate your privacy.

But I take issue with the fact that their examples were "you're lying to your girlfriend" and "you're cheating on your wife."  Seriously?  I know they were trying to be funny, but the implication you get from the article is that privacy should only matter in this way if you've got something to hide.  But that's not the case:

What about a parent who doesn't want to advertise to strangers the exact geo-location of the parks his kids play in every day?

What about a woman who has received threats from unpleasant people who feel that women should not be involved in open source software?  (I wish I were kidding, but this happened to me, and other people receive threats from disturbed individuals online.)

What about someone shopping for an engagement ring who meets a friend at the mall?

There's plenty of reasons one might prefer privacy.   I think maybe we would do well to include this sort of example in articles, so that even those living utterly honest lives will realize that privacy is important to them and people they care about.

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