Gathering information on people dates back to when 'governments' discovered the power of recorded information (the written word) and the joys of taxation.
Historically, such information compiled on individuals was paper-based and static. From the hospital record of your mother’s pregnancy and the issuing of your birth certificate, you were 'on file'. A record of your time at school was compiled and passed from school to school and then, with your first job, you were issued an IRD number. The paper-based format of these files created its own security for the content.
These days, with Web 2.0 and the 'one-click' transfer of data, digital information is being compiled about each of us at a fantastic rate. Download an application and you will be asked numerous questions not necessarily related to the software, as the company seeks to gather as much information about you as possible. This demand for unrelated information is pretty much par for the course when you sign-up to anything on the net.
All too often there will be the tiniest of asterisks next to the compulsory fields of information; with an acknowledgement at the end of the sign-in form in similarly tiny type stating that only those fields actually needed to be filled in. The extra questions; your salary, how many computers in your home/office, the number of children you have and their age and so on, is information companies want in order to sell you more products, or to compile facts about their customers to sell to other companies who want to sell you their products.
This is no Generation Y phenomenon; if you are using the internet you are spilling the beans on yourself. True, it’s a matter of degree. The more time you spend online, the more information you are inadvertently giving away. Moreover, you might think it’s hilarious at say 20, uploading a photo of yourself passed out clutching an empty bottle of spirits. However, a future employer’s HR department googling you after receiving a job application might not be so impressed. 'Possible alcohol issues' could be appended to the application as it is digitally dispatched to the reject pile.
An article in the February issue of CIO magazine, ‘Improve your Facebook profile by playing smart’, makes this point. 'Look - no really look - at those privacy settings'. That piece of advice cuts right across to anyone after signing up to a website and supplying information about them. Are you blogging on a site that hosts you at no charge? Check the terms and conditions (the fine print); the company hosting the site could well claim copyright over what you are writing.
Also, there is no guarantee that internet content you regard as privately stored will always remain so. The internet provider’s ownership might change and the new owner may take a different 'ownership' view of what you have cached. Let’s say a photo-sharing website changes its game-plan and announces it now holds copyright over all of the photos stored on its web server.
Facebook has just announced multinational companies can now selectively target its members to research the appeal of new products. Firms will be able to pose questions to users targeted via, for example, such intimate online details as to whether they are single, married, gay or straight.
This new instant polling tool is the tip of the iceberg, as Facebook will soon sell its members down the river to the marketing divisions of the multinationals then, on a local basis, to every company under the sun that can pony up the money. It will all be done with coatings of 'sugar and spice' to make Facebook users think they are gaining something with this viral marketing. For example: ‘Answer the questions and you could win a prize’ (be still my beating heart!).
The information Web 2.0 has made available in regards to people online and within company databases (much of which people have willingly or inadvertently supplied) is growing exponentially.
Don’t forget that once it's online - the embarrassing photo, your religious/political affiliations, the books you read, the music you listen to - you just can't take it back.
The CIO article urged users to check their privacy settings on social sites like Facebook. It also pays to read the terms and conditions before you sign on to any site.
It’s your life. With Web 2.0, you just have to decide how much of it you want to be public knowledge.
