Information respect

The webcast of Professor Joseph Turrow's talk "When the Audience Clicks--Buying Attention in the Digital Age" was very interesting and timely considering the news lately over privacy issues with Facebook. It is a bit scary to consider just how much information Google has on its users. Somewhat reassuring is that, according to Professor Turrow, web sites are not so much interested in who you are as an individual, but who you are demographically, what your buying habits are. Google's goal is to use this 'behavioral targeting' and demographics gleamed from its users to tailor more content...possibly in the form of tailored ads and newspaper content. This is already happening to an extent.

Time has an interesting cover article on Facebook in its current issue (May 31, 2010). An interesting quote from the article (written by Dan Fletcher): "...the site is premised on a contradiction: Facebook is rich in intimate opportunities--you can celebrate your niece's first steps there and mourn the death of a close friend--but the company is making money because you are, on some level, broadcasting those moments online. The feelings you experience on Facebook are heartfelt; the data you're providing feeds a bottom line." How much personal information are we willing to share?

I concur with Professor Turrow in that a degree of Information Respect needs to be implemented with regards to your personal information flying around the web. Tell me how this particular web site got this information. What will you do with it? Where did it come from and why was it sent to you?

After much pressure from my friends to join, I set up a Facebook account nearly a year ago, but I really rarely visit the site. I'm apprehensive to post pictures of my children or husband...they haven't signed up for this site, I have. Plus it's really such a time drain, in my opinion. I don't need to know the minutiae of friends' everyday lives. I prefer blogs that friends and family keep, I think it's a more focused, interesting form of social interaction on the Web.