Have you ever stopped to wonder about just how trusting you are with your online privacy, and how much information you freely give away? Have you ever thought how savvy you are in the modern era, but how naive your parents and grandparents were? I believe we could be living in a much more naive time now. Here’s why.
As I was researching last week’s post, on whether we should still trust Facebook with our online privacy and personal data, I was talking to my Mum. She said that she really liked the article (go Mum!) and that it reminded her of her Mum and her Mum’s attitude to sharing personal information.
She shared the following quote with me — that floored me! Have a read and see what you think.
My mum lived in the day when a person connected phones through to the number you called and in small towns notoriously that person knew, and spread all the town news and gossip. Until the day she died, mum was very careful about what she discussed over the phone for fear of " anyone could be listening in". I fear she might have been right.
I fear she may have been too, Mum. And to be honest, it makes me cringe more than just a little when I look back over how open and transparent I’ve been over the years.
I’m not saying that sharing facts about ourselves online is necessarily a bad thing, and that we shouldn’t share anything about ourselves. After all, sharing is a fundamental part of building and maintaining relationships with others. It helps makes us human. It helps makes us who we are.
However, when you share too much without stopping to consider the ramifications of doing so, it just may come back to haunt you at some point in the future. I hope for my sake that none of my previous sharing does.
What about you? Next time you’re asked, such as in a Facebook game, what your favourite comic character is, or the first street you lived in was, will you consider not sharing that information?
CC Image Courtesy of Royce Bair on Flickr
This post is dedicated to my Mum, and my two Grandmothers, who I still love very deeply.
In light of the recent Cambridge Analytica / Facebook scandal Mark Zuckerberg testified before the US Congress. Did you tune in to hear what he said about what they knew? Were you keen to know more and about how they might be planning to protect your privacy in the future?
Last Wednesday, I was interviewed on Radio Sputnik (based out of Moscow) about a recent article on the Guardian about Google recording your location history — even when you tell it not to. This was my first experience as a subject matter expert. So I wanted to share the experience with you.
Do you ever wonder just how much information Google is storing and sharing about you, all so that they can give you those search results? Ever felt like you were being tracked online, all so that you could do some simple searches? Well, it’s time to consider alternatives to Google, ones that give you great search results, but that don’t invade your privacy.
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