The Issue of Privacy Today

Facebook with its almost too numerous to count privacy settings is clearly a conflicted company when it comes to privacy It has a culture purpose and business model that is completely about sharing or sharing completely A complete surrender of privacy is the idealTo focus on Facebook and other social media as a place of concern for privacy is myopic We all long ago gave up privacy for the sake of convenience In the larger scheme of things we have willingly if not fully consciously given up our privacy over the past few decadesThe recent privacy flap at Facebook has caused many people in audiences I address to ask about privacy as it relates to social media I end up referring to a column I wrote almost four years ago and simply say quotAs technology advances privacy declinesquotBelow is that slightly tongue in cheek column written in 2006Technology Advances Privacy DeclinesOne of the trade offs we seem to have accepted during the past 20 years is a loss of privacy None of us say we approve of that but we have embraced technology in such a way that a diminished sense of privacy has occurred The portability of storage and computing as discussed on this blog in earlier posts is a major reason The easier small storage devices and laptops are to carry the higher probability of theftIt was revealed the other day that a laptop with personnel records for 382000 Boeing employees was stolen This was the third time in 13 months that this has occurred with Boeing Of course Boeing is not the only company where this has happened Laptops are portable and easy to put into a briefcase or bag Someone goes up for another cup of coffee at Starbucks or leaves their desk to go to the bathroom and in a few seconds the laptop and all the data on it is stolen We all enjoy the fact that we can have a computer with us wherever we are The freedom to work wherever and whenever we want is a very empowering thing something that didn39t exist 20 years agoIn the 1960s and 1970s computing equaled mainframe computing Companies and universities all had these large machines that were in air conditioned controlled access environments Access was highly monitored records were kept for all activities and people even dressed in white coats It looked and felt like the religion of the main frame Yes you could probably steal a computer tape but you would have to have another main frame computer to access the data This is so different than today when every desk has a PC and laptops are everywhereThe other key development of course is the Internet and the fact that all these computers are connecting to it This connectivity allows remote access from practically anywhere Firewalls become challenges to hackers Identities stolen from computers via the Internet can be almost instantaneously monetized It seems like every day there is an article or story in the media about identity theft So our highly connected lives open us up to risk This also opens us up to tracking What web sites we visit on the Internet What we buy Who we communicate with and what we say Of course now with massive use of wireless we have grown accustomed to using public wireless hot spots for our most personal communications and transactions We learned a decade ago that cell phones were less secure than land lines yet that certainly didn39t compel us to stop using them In fact cell phone usage has explodedEntire new security businesses such as consumer virus protection software and security gurus have emerged to help companies protect their data and confidential information We all want to be connected and protected at the same time If you truly want to keep your communications private think back on all the mafia movies you have seen To avoid being bugged at home or at the office or being wiretapped via the phone mafia dons would meet on a park bench or take a walk on a construction site to discuss 39business39 Once you move to most electronic communications you increase the risk of intrusion observation or theft Hey what39s so bad about sitting on a park bench on a sunny dayDavid Houle is a futurist strategist and speaker He has always been slightly ahead the curve Houle spent more than 20 years in media and entertainment Most recently David is a featured contributor to Oprahcom Check is out here wwwoprahcomdavidhoule David can be contacted at DavidDavidHoulecomRead all Davidamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at David Houle MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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The Issue of Privacy Today

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David Houle

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