Privacy
One of the topics I find really interesting in my research work is privacy. There are so many different types and levels of privacy that can be achieved. There is also usually a cost associated with the privacy level. The funny thing is that although people in academia (like me) think privacy is SUCH an important thing, most people don't care about it all that much! Showcase numero 1: seems 300 MIT kids were willing to trade all voice and data privacy with an iphone.
Anyway I wasn't planning on writing about this stuff! I wanted to write about two pet peeves of mine related to privacy. First is when you are at your desk, behind the computer and someone comes up to talk to you. Now the first thing they do is they look at your monitor and see what you were doing.... grrr!! So very rude!
The second pet peeve involves people posting up pictures of people without asking their permission. This is annoying and I think it is VERY rude. It is a total invasion of their privacy and yet... how can some people not realize it? if anyone wants to put up photos of me on the internet, so that anyone can have access to it, they better tell me and ask my permission.
Grrr.
8 comments:
Even if only people who know that my sight exists can see them?
What do you mean? I'm confused! %-)
who tagged you on facebook without permission? o.0
For example, my albums on Picassa are not listed. This means that they are not listed in directories or searchable. My account isn't listed either, and my account name is not searchable. Only people who know that I have an account on Picassa and know where to find it, can access them. No invitation is required though, so anyone who might stumble upon the url or guess it, my see them.
Oh yeah I am like that other Juan too. My albums are not listed, yet they are on the internet. I wanted backups of my photos, even if the girl doesn't like some of them I want to keep them safe from another hard drive death.
I'm rude ? :(
I don't know, that can get tricky. The problem is that once a photo or any document is uploaded onto the internet, it will ALWAYS exist and someone, somehow will find it, at some point.
The question is whether it is fair to the person you are uploading the photo of. I think as long as they know it is ok, it is ok. But if they don't know, or worst, if they know you don't want it but they still do it, well, i think there might be a problem there.
I am not sure the second part is rude. Or at least I can understand why many people would do it. If I have a picture with my family, for example, I wouldn't think of asking my uncles or cousins to see if I can post it on the web. I would just assume that it would be fine. I think we have posted a lot of pictures of people without asking them; e.g., facebook trip to the jungle.
Then again I might be wrong. I remember the first time I saw someone posting a picture of me on facebook (circa 2005); and how I was surprised to see me there.
Personally, I don't see the problem of having my picture posted by someone, some friend, who happens to have a picture with me in it. I mean, what's the harm in that? I know it's not exactly the same, but it is kind of like expecting people to not have pictures with me in them in there hard copy print albums at home. The online albums might get more visibility, but I don't see any harm in that. Again, that's just my own opinion.
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