On some days I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Frankly, this scared me. As I read it, I kept on thinking about Machiavelli’s The Prince and its paraphrased theme that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Here is a story from the Telegraph reporting on the founder of Facebook and his thoughts on how privacy is no longer required. Give it a read:
The Telegraph – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says privacy is no longer a ‘social norm’
Talking in San Francisco over the weekend at the Crunchie Awards, which recognise technological achievements, the 25 year-old web entrepreneur said: “People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people.”
He went on to say that privacy was no longer a ‘social norm’ and had just evolved over time.
Hmmm… this is scary stuff. What is worse is that it is being said by the person most responsible for protecting the expectation of privacy online. If they fold so goes the rest of the online world by convention. I suppose that this was inevitable, but it is still disappointing and profit driven. As an Information Professional, I know that with the resources available to Zuckerberg, he could easily provide data set based security and privacy controls on every discrete piece of information on Facebook. He could also provide a user interface that made it easy for people to customize from no to full protection and even has the lawyers to design an end user agreement to protect him. Why in the world would he go down this path?
I am frightened….
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for January 12, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Those who came in late…
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News Commentary: The Beginning of the End for Privacy
On some days I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest other stories.
Frankly, this scared me. As I read it, I kept on thinking about Machiavelli’s The Prince and its paraphrased theme that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Here is a story from the Telegraph reporting on the founder of Facebook and his thoughts on how privacy is no longer required. Give it a read:
The Telegraph – Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg says privacy is no longer a ‘social norm’
Hmmm… this is scary stuff. What is worse is that it is being said by the person most responsible for protecting the expectation of privacy online. If they fold so goes the rest of the online world by convention. I suppose that this was inevitable, but it is still disappointing and profit driven. As an Information Professional, I know that with the resources available to Zuckerberg, he could easily provide data set based security and privacy controls on every discrete piece of information on Facebook. He could also provide a user interface that made it easy for people to customize from no to full protection and even has the lawyers to design an end user agreement to protect him. Why in the world would he go down this path?
I am frightened….
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for January 12, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credit: Those who came in late…
No related posts.
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
This entry was posted by Scott Coughlin on January 12, 2010 at 7:29 am, and is filed under Business of IT, Information Age, News Commentary, Privacy. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.