Privacy Issues in Web 2.0

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Privacy Issues in Web 2.0

The title of this NY Times piece "You’re Leaving a Digital Trail. What About Privacy?" is I think a bit misleading. A lynchpin of Web 2.0 is of course user supplied content, whether that is information in the form of blog posts and subsequent comments holding personal opinion, linkages between data such as users indicating their friends on myspace, automated linkages such as records of consumption of music or other data, or automated data acquisition from real-world sensors. The key aspect of these though is the opt-in nature of the interaction. Users can choose to join myspace, or to comment, or to blog, or to share their data in any myriad of forms. They can choose to use existing services that provide these capabilities, or, because of the wonderful open way that the internet and computers are designed, they can choose to roll their own solutions; create a new system that does the nearly same but in the way that you want it to. If privacy safeguards are insufficient then you do not need to opt-in in the first place. In practice, if the safeguards of an existing system prove insufficient then you can choose to opt-out of something that you have joined, just stop using it or find, or build, an alternative. The lack of compulsion in whether not you use the system is an important factor. Caveat #1 - Web 2.0 Services should do what they say on the can. As a rule you should be able to retrieve your data and take it with you when you leave, in practice this might not be so straightforward due to the need of many systems to try to create lock-in or walled gardens. Nevertheless, if a system starts off by creating one type of relationship with its user then changes the rules, or to use the current parlance the "terms of service", then that relationship should not change without making the consequences very clear and ensuring that if the change leads to a change in the privacy position for the users then they should be given every opportunity to opt-IN to the new system relying upon assumed content. Caveat #2 - I believe that people must control their own privacy and that the state, in general, has no business invading the privacy of individuals. This means that whom I communicate with, the nature of that communication, and the content of my communications are the business of myself and the people with whom I communicate and of NOBODY ELSE, unless I explicitly deem otherwise.

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Privacy Issues in Web 2.0