Shooting at Bubbles

Boy do we have some pretty strange concepts of what privacy is when it comes to the Web, or rather we seem to be misunderstanding exactly what privacy is.

No this is not a post in defense of Facebook and their anal attitude about controlling the flow of information. Nor is it a post extolling the virtues of new projects like Diaspora or other Facebook replacements (in their dreams maybe) who are selling themselves by tauting their belief in your right to privacy.

This post isn’t about either of those things because we’re talking about the wrong thing. This so-called uproar over what Facebook has been doing with its Open Graph and social plugins has nothing to do with privacy. It is all a case of verbal and ideological misdirection.

Look, privacy is a nice ideology and plays well in the headlines and courtrooms but when it comes to the Web and especially the Social Web using the word privacy is a misnomer. Privacy, or rather private are those things in our lives whether they be thoughts or conversations that exists within a certain set of parameters.

What happens in our bedrooms is considered to be private. What happens within the four walls of our homes is considered private. Conversations with our doctors, our lawyers is considered to be private. What is said in a confessional is considered to be private between you, the priest and God.

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If there is one really hot button topic when it comes to the Web it has to be the whole idea of privacy. From Scott McNealy to Eric Schmidt of Google to the newest statement about privacy from Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook we are being told that our abnormal concern about privacy is outmoded and stupid.

In the case of both Schmidt and Zuckerberg there is no denying that they both have ulterior reasons for wanting to get us all to be as open on the Web as possible. After all their businesses rely exclusively on us being willing to share anything and everything about ourselves on the Web.

It is equally unsurprising that there is a whole bunch of people who don’t agree with them, nor do they approve with the methods that companies like Google and Facebook will go to in order to get us to reconsider what our boundaries of privacy are. In fact some are vehemently opposed to the constant pushing of the privacy envelope that these companies will go to.

The only problem is that none of this arguing has anything to do with what real privacy is. In fact all this does is show us just how screwed up our concept of privacy is. Don’t get me wrong I am extremely bothered with the way that these companies do end up collecting and sharing the information that we give them but none of this has to do with what privacy is.

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