Privacy? Is that a vegtable?

So, here we are opening this can of worms. Yeah I know there are other stories that going on, but I'm working on a couple of posts, which should surface sometime soon. OK, so let's talk about privacy on the Internet. It's the one thing you will hear over and over again "There is no privacy on the Internet." Which is part of the truth, but not the whole truth.

This is normally the cry of the anti-social narwhal (not an actual meme, yet!) against social networks, but it is a smidge unfair. The main complaint people have is that all your information is out there and anybody can see it and so on and so forth. Well, yes because you put it out there. It's like complaining that your diary contains all these personal and embarrassing things about you. Yes, in this case the diary is actually owned by somebody else, but you knew what you were getting into. There really is no way around, except you know not posting stuff like that on social networks.

Another issue regarding matter of posting stuff is visibility. People seem to be unable to comprehend the very basic fact that stuff you post will be visible to other people. You can control who those people are, granted it is not always in the most obvious way. There always exists some mechanism to limit the visibility of your post. There are countless stories of students putting up statuses about teachers they added and employees doing the same with employers.

Well, let's say you mastered all the above, there is still one small problem. The people you are sharing this content with may not be so discerning. This is especially true for "amusing" content, exemplified best by the sites Lamebook and Failbook. Both these sites allow users to post screenshots of post on Facebook, or any other social network in the case of Failbook, that they found amusing. The best are then shared on these sites for consumption by the general public.

Even as I write this I can hear the anti-social narwhal (this should totally be a meme) bellowing in my ears "BUT WHAT ABOUT THE PRIVACY!!!" Well these sites do apply some discretion and redact names and profile pictures so as the preserve the identity of the posters. This does not always work. The trouble is that most posts get submitted to both sites. The really good ones show up on both. And well if you mess up the redaction then it gets a bit hinky.

A perfect example of this is the following post on Lamebook and Failbook. Lamebook redacted the surnames and Failbook redacted the forenames. The end result is that you found the original people and the original post. In all fairness this post is public so there is not really much of an issue of privacy at this point, but try tell that to a narwhal (don't ask, I'm just going with it now).

So, in conclusion children: be aware of what you post on the Internet, for there are no secrets. Also, always brush your teeth before going to bed.