The future of privacy
In my book, Privacy Lost, I devoted a good bit of time discussing why I think that privacy as we know it is doomed. The main argument is that the nature of digital information is such that data never really goes away and even worse, that it becomes consolidated, at least from a search perspective. So, more and more information is available on each of us every year. And it's not just new information, but older stuff that's recently become digitized. Old records (financial, educational, medical, legal) are showing up digitally. You may not think that specialized and "confidential" information will be accessible, but you'd be wrong. Everything is potentially searchable.
So how do you maintain your privacy? Do you just give up?
Never give up. There are 3 things that you can do:
1) Fight back. Stop making it easier on them by giving out your social security number, phone number or anything else that simplifies the data base work.
2) Use pseudonyms online. There's absolutely no reason to use your real information anywhere short of buying something with a credit card. Establish a couple of good identities know and build your reputation. Someday reputation will be the prime currency in online worlds.
3) Let your elected leaders know that you care about your privacy. Privacy support has never been an issue in a political campaign, let alone a litmus test. Perhaps it's time.
Posted on February 27, 2007
