tag me with a spoon: This.
…I’m just kind of astounded by the ridiculousness of what you see below by mcdavis and caterpillarcowboy. The most ridiculous statement of all is the blanket one by mcdavis: “The internet is not private.” Of course parts of the Internet are private. My gmail, I certainly hope, my…
When I’m back in NYC, we should grab drinks and have a friendly chat about this.
I guess what I’m saying is that there are private places on the Internet (email) and public places (Twitter). Trying to be something in the middle (where Facebook is now) is problematic, which is exactly what Facebook is experiencing right now. Fred Wilson writes about this today as well. Complicated controls and forcing users to maintain complex mental models of privacy is not a solution, it’s a band-aid. The right solution is to be black and white - a service is private or it’s public.
There are no private places on the Internet. Your Gmail messages, web browsing history, and credit card transactions are stored across a multitude of server farms on machines that are not owned by you. “Your” information is being handled by someone else’s code and being stored on someone else’s hardware.
Employees of the companies maintaining “your” data have access to it; they need this access in order to do their jobs. Given a warrant or subpoena, “your” data can be retrieved at any time without your knowledge. This is not a paranoid notion, it is plainly stated publicly.
Additionally, as recently illustrated by Facebook’s changes, company policies are in constant flux and are generally subject to change at any time. Between policy and the law, you have only an illusory say on where “your” data is shared.
Unless you are running your own hardware which is running your own software on your own ISP, everywhere you visit and everything you post online can be considered forfeit.
If you are paying a company specifically to store your information securely you have a right to be angry when your privacy is breached.
If you have agreed to use a free site under a broad terms of service, you should not be surprised when things change.
