The Right to Remain Anonymous?

Internet stalking seems to be really fashionable, and it is no secret that I indulge in various social networking websites on a pretty constant basis. And, quite honestly, I don't believe that its up for debate that these websites and services are having a pretty direct and meaningful impact on the societies it has become a part of (and those which they may be creating). But with these websites comes a pervasive question of privacy and what kinds of privacy people are entitled to when they use these websites.

This morning I was reading this article on a Google+ Insider. As Google attempts to push its way into the social networking website, there are bond to be ever more contests between the Google Team and Facebook- and this particular one happens to revolve around the ways in which applications on the social networking websites may collect and utilize your personal information. I wont bother with a synopsis of the terms of use regarding privacy- you can easily go and find that yourself. However, I am left asking "what exactly constitutes personal information?"

After all, when I created my Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ accounts (not to mention old sites I don't use anymore, such as Myspace, Livejournal, or Xanga) did I not sign up to have my information posted online? See, this may be one of the biggest problems with assuming that consumers can have a regulatory affect on markets- consumers are not always rational actors with perfect knowledge. I'll admit it right now, I didn't sit down and read the terms of use when I created my accounts. And I haven't checked them each time they have come up with new versions. So am I not to blame if my information is being "leaked" or otherwise distributed?

Of course, there have been cases where companies have distributed information and disclosed such actions to no one, leaving for some legal gray areas to be worked out. And the information I posted is not necessarily "private" information. I want this information to be shared- of course just not to everyone. So there are obviously places where disclosure is absolutely necessary, but to claim that the information is personal is just a little bit disingenuous. These aren't tidbits of secret information, or at least they shouldn't be.

The whole iPhones tracking your location scandal doesn't sit well with me, and seeing the same ability being applied to Google+ and Facebook does, however, make me a little wary. And while I have disabled these features, there is a pretty stark contrast in abilities between me, the user, and the providers of any service I sign up for. As technologies move forward, it is not really practical for me to be able to keep track of everything the provider suddenly becomes able to do. How will I know when they suddenly can know when I'm using a public restroom off of highway 55?

In my third year of college I did a research project on cyberbullying which explored the ways in which we, as an individual oriented society, have been unable or unwilling to think about personal interactions online in a more critical fashion and have often dismissed the Internet as "not being real life." I have heard many people talk about how the teenagers who suffer from cyberbullying are unstable people anyway, and it didn't matter how they got bullied. What is ignored in such an argument, however, is that Internet technologies, including social networking, have actually broken apart the private/public divide that we thought existed. It is possible to be chased home by your problems outside. The Internet, while being accessed in a "private" setting is not really a private domain. And this is the heart of the issue, I believe. There's a tendency to link the Internet with the privacy of the home without realizing that the very existence of the Internet is predicated upon "public" or shared movement of information.

I don't actually know how to feel about these issues in any meaningful sense. I'm reluctant to give Internet providers or other service providers a free pass to disguise what they do from users. The Internet is largely produced by public use and exchange. At the same time, I think it may be foolish to believe that the Internet is capable of being a private space. What is Internet privacy, and what would it really look like?