Children Won’t Expect Privacy
Okay, they can close the door when they pee. But few other instances demand a child have absolute privacy from their parents. Its our job to observe, guide, and lead them on the path to being a mature adult. Right?
This week brings new changes in the world of social media and they will have a substantial impact on the expectations of privacy that people have in the very near and distant future.
Facebook and Google made important announcements on Tuesday about their platforms and how users will interact with them. Facebook posted on its blog that their new “Timeline” feature will be mandatory for all users over the next few weeks. For those unfamiliar, Timeline reorganizes all of your Facebook data into a timeline of your life. It can categorize and document every moment in your life going all the way back to birth. It combines photos with “Likes” with tagged places and friends. It can show anniversary dates, graduations, and even your bar mitzvah. On the other side of Silicon Valley, Google announced that it will begin tracking its users across all of its properties. If you have a GMail account and log in to check your email, you might want to sign out before moving on to search for something at Google.com or watching a video on YouTube or posting a rant at Blogger. If you don’t, Google will be documenting each search, watch, and post then adding to the super secret file in Mountain View, California with your name on it.
No significant noise is being made about either move. Are either of them truly negative or dangerous? We honestly don’t know yet and perhaps they are just more precursors to an open and honest society. Let’s hope things turn out well. But I believe the effects won’t be fully felt for many years – as our children begin shaping the world around them and choosing their own levels of privacy and interaction. Will they consider privacy a legal right any more? Will they have any expectation of it at all?
Time will tell but I expect privacy will die a slow and mildly bumpy death unless something radical happens. Is privacy a big issue at your house? How do your kids view privacy on the internet? Share your comments below.
