Privacy? What Privacy?
Posted by chet on 05-22-2006There was an interesting article about Gen Y and privacy in the San Francisco Chronicle over the weekend. It points out an apparent contradiction in how Gen Y views privacy: they freely make their lives public on sites like MySpace, but appear more concerned than even their parents about government privacy infringement such as telephone eavesdropping. Supporting this is a Pew Research Center poll that shows a slightly higher belief among the 18-29 group that government terrorist eavesdropping practices are wrong.
What I think is worth noting is that young people might think privacy infringement is wrong, but they aren’t displaying a real desire to fight back. It's an issue they feel pretty powerless over, because their lives are already lacking privacy. As Danah Boyd was quoted in the article, “Teens today grow up in a state of constant surveillance where there is no privacy, so they can't really have an idea of it being lost. The risk of the government or a corporation coming in and looking at their MySpace site is beyond their consideration." It’s a point I agree with. I think that Gen Y is pretty blaze about privacy. In her blog, Danah elaborated on her point, saying:
“Teens are growing up in a constant state of surveillance because parents, teachers, school administrators and others who hold direct power over youth are surveilling them. Governments and corporations are beyond their consideration because the people who directly affect their lives have created a more encompassing panopticon than any external structure could ever do.”
The result is a generally relaxed attitude towards privacy, because as she says, if youth don’t have privacy in their personal lives, they don’t expect it in their public lives.
May 23rd, 2006 at 12:49 am
"hey freely make their lives public on sites like MySpace, but appear more concerned than even their parents about government privacy infringement such as telephone eavesdropping."
Chet: See, that makes perfect sense to me. You control what you put on Myspace… no one reaches into your life and pulls it out. Wiretaps, on the other hand, are an invasion.
There's also the fact that things which are appropriate for individuals or even corporations may not be appropriate for the government. Most businesses post their privacy policies… if I don't want to do business with them, I don't. But short of emigrating to Canada, I can't opt-out of the government's tracking of information and behavior.