Privacy

It appears that privacy is the new hot topic within online social media and networking spheres so being that I'm devoting this blog to discussion around the 21st century dilemmas we face around media and technology, I had to start exploring this topic.

One of the first online privacy scares took place when Google implemented Google Earth. Remember that? Consumers realized that anyone could identify and locate the street view of any location, even homes. At first, this seemed scary. But like most societal-influenced trends that lead to fear, they are short lived. Today, the Google "street view" is a common map function. I even sometimes print out the street view for driving directions.

Privacy concerns today seem much more evasive and integrated into all online interactions. Social networking sites and retailers are becoming more and more subtle about consumers' privacy while there is a growing lack of consumer awareness around how the information that you share online is used. Not only are there numerous sites like Spokeo where you can find personal information such as someones' credit score, address, occupation, but there are also social networking platforms such as Facebook that have new privacy features and ways of sharing your information that is almost too much to keep up with. (Doesn't it seem like Facebook changes this on a weekly basis?)

We'll see what happens!

To be continued.....
-T.C.