If you’ve been paying attention to this week’s launch of Google Buzz, you’ve heard the privacy outcry that followed the social media service’s debut. Google has been listening to the ‘buzz’ and on Thursday announced changes that will appease some of the detractors. Of course, other folks will still find a reason to be upset.
My response: Get over it, people. If you choose to lead an online social life, your privacy has already been thrown out the window. You can express your outrage at Google, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and — I love this phrase — Google’s “big in Brazil Orkut” service, but the reality is your privacy went out the window a long time ago in the digital era.
Nicholas Carlson, who deserves a big tip of the cap for pointing out key privacy issues in this Silicon Alley Insider post, made me laugh when he wrote this line: “In my profession — where anonymous sourcing is a crucial tool — the implications of this flaw are terrifying.”
First, it would be nice if reporters actually started to quote people again in their stories. Anonymous sources have become cliched and agenda-driven. I trust few stories that rely on them. Second, use a different email for reporting. Better, try the phone — it’s a lot harder to have phone calls used as evidence in a trial than a string of emails.
But I digress.
The bottom line: If you want to use a social media tool like Google Buzz or Twitter, recognize that you’re sharing information with the world. In turn, the world can get a peek into your life whenever it wants. Clever people from Nigeria have figured out, over and over again, to trick you into revealing your banking information. (FYI: Beware of this Valentine’s Day cyber scam, the “flirt bot.”)
Online privacy is an illusion and if you think your communications are truly private, you’re a fool. Google even scans your emails in Gmail for keywords so it can place ads next to your private conversations. There are 176 million Gmail users, according to a reported figure from comScore.
The best way to protect your online privacy is the old-fashioned way: Share your thoughts in diary (I love the first sentence here!) and lock them in your nightstand. Otherwise, stop complaining.
One Comment
Some of us do not share our personal email addresses with just anyone, and now Google is doing that without our permission. Your post shows that you have never been in a situation such as domestic violence where you need to keep your information within a group of people you selected. If privacy is an illusion, why does this comment form tell me my email is never published nor shared? How would you find a job or participate in modern American society without an email account?
You have not thought through the implications of Google sharing my private contact information with strangers.
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Google privacy concerns: Stop complaining. http://bit.ly/cw3k9c
Tip @Techmeme: Google privacy concerns: Stop complaining. http://bit.ly/cw3k9c
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