Privacy concerns online

by Erica T

9 comments

1 davidp { 10.06.09 at 9:27 pm }

Thanks for this resource Erica. Very appropriate in the context of Mod 4 discussions.

d.

2 Omar Ramroop { 10.07.09 at 11:59 am }

Hi Erica,

Great find. This would be an excellent resource to show to secondary school students as well. The integration of social technologies at that level is astounding and while adults may receive negative consequences with regards to employment opportunity, younger students, in particular, are at-risk for far worse situations.

Thanks again,

– Omar

3 jennie wong { 10.08.09 at 12:30 pm }

Erica,

I agree with Omar and this is a great find. Our school has blocked social networking sites but the kids continue to find k-proxy sites that unblock the sites. They mostly used all of these sites for social reasons but if I can prove that we can use it for educational purposes, then it would be wonderful and get them unblocked.

Jen

4 Kathleen Cavanagh { 10.08.09 at 12:47 pm }

Thanks for the link Erica,
Another privacy issue I have seen is the situation where others post information or pictures without telling that person, and so the person is unaware of that item being up on the net. Best, Kathleen

5 Erica T { 10.08.09 at 6:40 pm }

Kathleen…that happened to me…I found pictures of my kids on the net…posted on someone else’s facebook page…including my kids’ full names and where we live. I was very unhappy. Talk about proprietary concerns! My kids, but the facebook user’s camera…
Luckily they removed the photos (immediately) at my request.

6 Merv LaBrash { 10.09.09 at 1:51 pm }

Thanks for the link Erica. I’ve had the same experience of seeing my family’s photos posted online along with video. I don’t think we can emphasize enough to young people that whatever you put online is for public consumption. Which means each one of us has to continue to guard their privacy carefully. Although, sometimes I think that privacy war was lost long ago.

7 Cathy Jung { 10.10.09 at 7:03 am }

Jennie,

Similar your school, my workplace has blocked social networking sites. Some employees used proxy sites to get around this and hence our IT and HR department issued a update to the Employee Handbook which advised that use of social networking sites (such as Facebook, MySpace etc) and proxy sites to access them would lead to disciplinary action which could include termination.

Cathy

8 Barrie Carter { 10.11.09 at 4:30 pm }

Hell0 Erica:

There seems to be more and more news about on-line privacy issues than ever before: political figures having to step down from office because of Facebook content; individuals being fired from work because of blog content; college students getting into trouble by their institution because of Facebook content, and so on.

However, I am not convinced that people are going to be more careful over time, for people are *choosing* not to care or to be aware. I do not believe that people do not know about privacy issues; I think that users do not think that they are posting terribly inappropriate things.

After all, ethics, morals, values, and virtues are waning entities, and shame is fading from our societal consciousness.

In closing, the privacy issue is a sad phenomenon, for Web 2.0 is an awesome world when used properly and appropriately.

Cheers,

Barrie

9 Amy Frank { 11.01.09 at 9:12 pm }

Great find, Erica! I am often thankful I grew up and finished university (my undergrad) before everyone had a camera and web access. I have witnessed some very “interesting” photos of friends online. It isn’t just photos either. I am surprised what people are willing to post as statuses and notes. Anyway, I have heard of digital tattoos and I hope to teach my kids all about issues of privacy and the net before they create a negative digital tattoo for themselves. Check out the following site: http://digitaltattoo.ubc.ca/

Thanks!

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