[FOOT] I'm So Totally, Digitally Close To You/You're Leaving a Digital Trail

The first page of this article immediately struck a chord with me. It discussed the change from the very primitive Facebook layout, to the first one that included a News Feed, which is now a very accepted feature. Heck, the news feed is one of, if not the, most important features of what defines Facebook.

"What particularly enraged Parr was that there wasn’t any way to opt out of News Feed, to “go private” and have all your information kept quiet."

"Within days, the tide reversed. Students began e-mailing Zuckerberg to say that via News Feed they’d learned things they would never have otherwise discovered through random surfing around Facebook"

As a Facebook user for several years now, these two quotes correlate to every single time Facebook makes a change to its layout or privacy settings. There is an outburst for a few days or a few weeks, but eventually everyone shuts up. This is EVERY SINGLE TIME. No matter the situation, people don't pay enough attention and Facebook gets their way. Over the past several years, Facebook has continued to change their privacy settings to allow more of your information out, and people constantly ignore the changes and give their information away. This isn't new, and people don't seem to care.

Later on in the piece, it discusses a concept labeled as "ambient intimacy." It's a lingering, long lasting mark on the world that we can all view, all the time. We may not always be aware of it. The piece talks about how each little piece of information comes together over time to create a picture of who we are, yet we continue to let it be drawn for everyone to see. This is how we are judged now -- but the little snippets we leave behind. And we just continue to leave these bread crumbs behind us that people can openly follow. This leads to the next article/my next point.

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People. Don't. Care. This entire article proves it. The very first paragraphs are about kids completely willing to give up their privacy for a smart phone. Our own financial/materialistic desires are causing us to give up basic human rights and a better way of living.

I was actually quite depressed by how much this article focused on the positives. Yes, Google is doing great things and are worthy of praise. And data collection can do great things. But all of this data collection is done by private companies that, in reality, can do whatever they want with it. They say they don't/won't sell your data, but you would most likely not know if they did anyways, because they'll be doing business with someone else who doesn't want you to know they have your data. This is a political issue that needs to be addressed.

We are ignoring the fact that we don't have any privacy anymore because it's for our own societal gain and nothing else.

But, then I am posed with this question: Even if we "protect" the data, is it really all that safe? Ever? Even 5 years ago, data was being collected on us, and it's just becoming more widespread and open. So, no matter how we go about this, are we screwed anyways? Will we ever really have privacy ever again if we continue to have to have an ip address, a cell phone with gps in it, etc. etc.? I don't think so. But maybe I'm just a skeptic.