One main point of the article was regarding the cluster concept of privacy; there exists three aspects according to McCullagh. First is informational privacy, which states that an individual has the right to control their personal information and who else this info is disclosed to. Second is accessibility privacy, which should protect people from wiretapping, peeping Tom's, or other physical encroachments. The third aspect is expressive privacy, which states individuals should have the ability to freely act and interact as they desire without fear of scrutiny or being forced to conform to the existing social norms.
Another point the author makes is that one third of the participants were concerned with privacy of personal information. This relates to both their blog's audience and the things they chose to post. Audience members of a blog could be known to the blogger (real life friends) or they could be some random people in cyberspace. Bloggers explained that personal info, emotions, sex, relationships, arguments, financial info, work, health info, illegal activities, politics, and religion were all topics that can at times be too private to post.
Finally, I believe one of the study's main points is found in the discussion where the author talks about the archiving of blogs and how it could lead to issues later if tracked back to the blogger. By assuming privacy, bloggers are at greater risk and should consider the privacy mechanisms explained in the article. Without them, one day an old naive post could negatively affect the changed and grown blogger.
~T
Very good response. Much better than the one that I wrote.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to pin point the correct privacy policy since everyone is sensitive to varying degrees in regard to their privacy, as noted.
The bottom line is that we as users of these blogs are the people that are responsible for what we put on them. Be it today, tomorrow or 10 years past.
This article was very helpful in a way since it gave us suggestions on how to create our social identity and listing the "dont's" of online language. It is a guidline into how people may get into trouble.