Thread: Google Latitude
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Benson's Avatar
Posts: 4,930 | Thanked: 2,272 times | Joined on Oct 2007
#43
Originally Posted by benny1967 View Post
i don't quite understand those who say here they've got concerns about privacy.

don't you use instant messaging?
Not much.
my presence settings already tell my friends that i'm home, that i watch tv, that i'm having dinner... and, sometimes, what songs i'm listening to.
When I'm available, mine tell people that I'm working on my computer, or that I've left it idle long enough to time out. When I'm not available, they show no information.

don't you have a blog or something similar?
No; I'm not conceited enough to think the world at large is interested in 99% of my life, and the 1% that has some relevancy to certain chunks of the world get posted in public sites (like here) that are frequented by those who will be interested.

so that's what we have... already. people tell me where they are. what they do. some of it is based on privacy-protecting invitation-systems (such as instant messaging, nokia friend view,...), other content (blogs) is totally open for everyone to read.
That's what "we" have, and what some of us choose to use, and some of us don't. Some of us are choosing not to use it still, even though it's now being made easier and slicker than ever before. Almost as though our previous declination to use it was not based on difficulty.

FWIW, I don't see this as a generational issue. (I'm mid-20s, FYI.) I see it as simply a difference in attitude. We all see the same things, but still look at them differently. (There's also complete *****s who don't immediately see any link between "I can share my location with my friends" and "someone could spend some effort and track me down", but I'll restrict the discussion to sentient lifeforms.)
  • There are those who see the possibility of tracking them down, and can't stand the notion that someone, with enough effort, could do that. (And are crazy enough to think they can realize untraceability... these guys are amusing.)
  • There are people who see what's going on, and don't mind; they tend to think they've nothing to hide, and since sharing random minutiae of their lives gives them some sort of warm fuzzies, why not?
  • Then there are those of us who see it, who also have nothing to hide most of the time, but also have nothing to flaunt, and feel that privacy is a natural default when there's no good reason to divulge info, and needs no justification. Maybe we don't get warm fuzzies, or maybe we just don't consider them a good reason. We are clearly the most principled, rational, and generally sane of the lot.
Since these different attitudes don't depend on any observations only available x years ago, or reactions to previous generations, there's no obvious reason these attitudes should be tied to any particular age or generation, and I don't think they are.
 

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