New technologies leave privacy in the dust
Privacy ain't what it used to be, not in the age of the Internet. Not with satellites orbiting in space that can read the license plate on your car. Not with digital cameras in cell phones that that can send your photo across the country or around the world in the blink of an eye.
Sure, technology is great. But it's made privacy almost a thing of the past.
Let's take a look at Google, the king of the hill when it comes to Internet search engines.
Most people who have access to a computer use Google a lot to look up just about everything.
Google recently added a new feature to its Google Maps section called Street View. Wanna see how things look on Broadway in New York City or on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco? Street View puts you right there. It's pretty cool.
But a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania couple doesn't think so.
They sued Google for $25,000 last April citing the company had photographed their home on a private road, causing them mental suffering and diminishing their home's value.
Google said it was legally allowed to photograph on private roads. And as for privacy?
"Today's satellite-image technology means that … complete privacy does not exist," Google said.
The court threw the case out last week, but you can bet it won't be the last of its kind.
Then there's Facebook, the social networking site that showed up a few years ago to make the small world even smaller.
On Facebook you can chat with your friends, post photos or videos, lots of stuff. But earlier this month, Facebook "clarified" its terms of service that you have to agree to in order to sign up.
Under the old agreement the site could share your information with third parties, usually people wanting to sell you something, but if you ended your Facebook account that license to share your content ended to.
Under the new agreement, if you deleted your information on your page, Facebook had the right to keep copies in the system indefinitely.
Say you wrote a book and posted it on Facebook for your friends to see. Then you decided to close your account. Under the new rules your book wouldn't disappear. Facebook keeps a copy.
But that's not all.
Buried deep in legalese and fine print was the part that said by remaining a member you give Facebook "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license" to "use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute" things you post on Facebook.
In English, that book you wrote and posted on the site, you don't own it no more. Facebook does. They can sell it for $20 million bucks and never have to pay you a cent. With more than 175 million people using the site, that's a lot of potentially valuable writing and pictures and video to pick and choose from.
And as you can imagine, million of these people threw fits about the company's decision to change the rules midstream.
The outcry was so big, Facebook decided to kill their planned changes and are crafting new terms of service again, with input from users this time.
Hopefully people will soon learn that privacy is too important to sacrifice for technology that's most likely not being used for our best interests.
Like author Stewart Brand wrote, "Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road."
Sure, technology is great. But it's made privacy almost a thing of the past.
Let's take a look at Google, the king of the hill when it comes to Internet search engines.
Most people who have access to a computer use Google a lot to look up just about everything.
Google recently added a new feature to its Google Maps section called Street View. Wanna see how things look on Broadway in New York City or on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco? Street View puts you right there. It's pretty cool.
But a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania couple doesn't think so.
They sued Google for $25,000 last April citing the company had photographed their home on a private road, causing them mental suffering and diminishing their home's value.
Google said it was legally allowed to photograph on private roads. And as for privacy?
"Today's satellite-image technology means that … complete privacy does not exist," Google said.
The court threw the case out last week, but you can bet it won't be the last of its kind.
Then there's Facebook, the social networking site that showed up a few years ago to make the small world even smaller.
On Facebook you can chat with your friends, post photos or videos, lots of stuff. But earlier this month, Facebook "clarified" its terms of service that you have to agree to in order to sign up.
Under the old agreement the site could share your information with third parties, usually people wanting to sell you something, but if you ended your Facebook account that license to share your content ended to.
Under the new agreement, if you deleted your information on your page, Facebook had the right to keep copies in the system indefinitely.
Say you wrote a book and posted it on Facebook for your friends to see. Then you decided to close your account. Under the new rules your book wouldn't disappear. Facebook keeps a copy.
But that's not all.
Buried deep in legalese and fine print was the part that said by remaining a member you give Facebook "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license" to "use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute" things you post on Facebook.
In English, that book you wrote and posted on the site, you don't own it no more. Facebook does. They can sell it for $20 million bucks and never have to pay you a cent. With more than 175 million people using the site, that's a lot of potentially valuable writing and pictures and video to pick and choose from.
And as you can imagine, million of these people threw fits about the company's decision to change the rules midstream.
The outcry was so big, Facebook decided to kill their planned changes and are crafting new terms of service again, with input from users this time.
Hopefully people will soon learn that privacy is too important to sacrifice for technology that's most likely not being used for our best interests.
Like author Stewart Brand wrote, "Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road."
posted by Street Wise Guy | 6:53 AM
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