As part of my education, I'm learning about the use of My Space. The part that interests me is the debate as to the wisdom of using such extremely public forums for information-sharing and discussion. To me, it looks like most of the protest against such use stems from fear that someone unscrupulous will see our information and use it to bad ends. And this is one I can appreciate.
Even if we don't venture into debating the actual validity of these fears, they are real feelings that every electronic predator intenisifies. I myself am reluctant to put personal information online. When I was a young teenager, I heard a story (no telling how true it is) that a police officer in the vice squad conducted a test: he gave his daughter's screen name (which, by the way, did not contain personal info) to their squad's computer expert, and within an hour that expert could tell the first officer his daughter's name, age, and home address.
Now, this was almost 10 years ago-- by now, I don't have any objective knowledge as to how true this may be in its own right, much less how it applies generally. But ever since, I have carried the message with me that sharing information online, any information, is dangerous.
What do you think? Is this danger real? Or is the true risk being exaggerated by media and urban legends?
2 comments:
Your fears are well founded about privacy online. I don't know as much as an officer computer expert, but am able to find many people who would otherwise not want to be revealed. This is why I often fabricate details in my profiles, particularly on myspace, because I don't trust the handlers of my information.
Here's my 2 cents on the dangers of the internet. The internet is a public place. It is every bit as public as a local business, a bus station or even *gasp* a public library. Exercise the same caution on the internet that you would in any other public place and you'll be fine. Nice blog, keep chugging along :)
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