Like Schrodinger's cat, online privacy is both alive and dead
Lora Bentley from IT Business Edge asked a smattering of people for their opinion on privacy — whether it’s alive or dead. I started thinking about this and to me, privacy is what we make of it — we can choose whether we keep our lives private (as much as it’s possible to do these days) or open ourselves up to the online world. To me, privacy is both alive and dead, and we’re ultimately responsible for it. That’s when a vision of Schrodinger’s cat popped into my mind — pretty esoteric reference to those who did not take quantum mechanics in college, but what can I say, I’m a bit of a nerd.
I also remembered an article that came out not too long ago about some teen who killer her boyfriend because she was drinking and driving. Not only was this a horrible event, for which the girl was going to be charged as a minor (she was only 17), but she posted a picture of herself on Facebook titled “Drunk in Florida” a month later. The judge caught wind of this and changed his decision, denied her youthful offender status, and instead charged her as an adult. Now, this girl, in my opinion, did not choose wisely regarding her online privacy. However, it was her choice. How much of ourselves we put out there is really up to us.
I don’t subscribe to the idea of complete privacy, because these days that’s pretty hard to do (who doesn’t buy an occasional something from Amazon?) However, we do need to be judicious. And of course, when it comes to obeying the law (e.g. HIPAA, SOX, GLBA, etc.), we should also be aware of the consequences if we don’t protect confidential or sensitive information.
