Social Networking Privacy Meme
facebook networking privacy social
When I first joined facebook, I was quite reluctant to do so, since I was well aware that whatever I post online would be accessible to everyone, and that things can get out of hand. I was however excited about an easy method to keep in touch with friends, family and even the possibility of catching up with long lost friends.
So I signed up and made sure that I keep my profile to the minimum. I only added some of the most important information, so that friends and family could get in touch with me if they ever wanted to do so. I also uploaded a couple of photos just to give a general idea of what I look like today (not that I changed much I think).
Lately however I noticed a trend that really disturbed me, not only concerning facebook, but social networking in general. It concerns personal privacy, and to all you conspiracy nuts, no I'm not talking about big brother type privacy concerns. I'm talking about one-on-one, person-to-person, personal privacy.
It is the overall lack of respect, of other people's privacy. It seems that an awareness of others' privacy is slowly but surely disappearing due to the nature of social networking sites. Now I'm not saying the social networking sites are to blame, nor am I stating that the individual users are to blame. I think it may be a little of both, but in this blog I'd like to focus on the individual.
Why write about this now?
Since I first started using facebook, I found it nice that I'm finally able to connect with friends and family etc. What did bother me, was the fact that friends were uploading pictures of me, which I found embarrassing or inappropriate, and to top it off, they would tag the photo, so that everyone could see it's me. I would promptly un-tag myself, and on occasion even send the uploader a message, asking them to remove the photo.
This of course made me quite unpopular, for all the wrong reasons. I mean, we were having a fun occasion, a party, or having a laugh. Why can we not share that with the rest of the community.
A Recent Event
The same thing happened again this week, though not to myself. Some friends of mine were at a festival over the weekend, and some photos inevitably ended up on facebook. Most of the people in the photos wanted their photos up, so this friend of mine just posted everything.
The problem is there were some photos of another friend and his wife, neither of which have a facebook profile. I was chatting to this other friend at the time via. IM, and I mentioned the nice photos of him and his wife. He didn't seem too happy about the photos going up. I then sent a IM to the guy that uploaded the photos, and he immediately removed them, and everyone was happy again.
This is what finally prompted this blog entry, in a attempt to raise awareness.
Paste it on the wall
So let us look at this in another way.
Lets assume you had a crazy party. Hey, why not go one further, dig up some of those photos on facebook right now, the ones with all your drunk friends making crazy faces or embarrassing themselves in any way.
Ok, now imagine yourself (please dont really do this), printing the photos, driving over to their house, and pasting them on their house wall or front door for everyone to see. Would you do that? I hope not!
Now we can argue that facebook actually is more private and you choose your friends, and thereby also control who can see the pictures. Ok well, then look at the same scenario above, and, rather than paste it on his wall, go to all his/her friends, family or anyone they have contact with on a regular basis, even work colleges, and show them the photos. No I guess you would not do that either.
So why do this on a internet website? Do you think you can get away with it because of “fake” anonymity?
Is Social Networking Bad?
No, I dont put the blame on social networking. But I do think we as individuals could observe a more basic and standard rule of etiquette and privacy, by simple asking someone for permission, before uploading personal photos of that individual.
I believe personal privacy is important, and I believe it's even more important to observe the rules of personal privacy towards the friends that you place a certain amount of trust and faith in.
Jurie-Jan - on 17 Feb 2010
+1 on that voting type thing. We should all have to approve being tagged at least. I'm not to worried about my dodgy pictures, but it can very easily get out of control. Perhaps we should petition Facebook to add this feature.
Ivan - on 18 Feb 2010
I wanted to tag some pictures the other day and I had to request to tag them - it might already be implemented. Could be wrong tho.
I don't care about pictures to be honest. If people catch me at a bad time, I don't care because it's who I am. It does however affect some people whom care about what other people think of them and also people whom rely on their reputation to bring them income.
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Hennie - on 17 Feb 2010
I agree with what is said here. And I think that social networks such as Facebook can do with a bit more privacy security measures. Or at least give all people on a particular photo the chance to vote yes or no on publishing of said photo. Or something to that effect.
Thanks for a very enlightning post Dude.
PS jy moet baie tyd op jou hande he om so iets na te dink. lol.