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"Social norms, trust, privacy"
02/20/2003 Entry
Via F2T I came across this well written and elaborate piece on privacy spills. In short, the story is about an email that was initially meant for some friends of a journalist which then took on a life of its own and became the topic of widespread public discussion online.
Instead of slipping into a technologically detereministic position, the commentator does a nice job of discussing the various social aspects related to this story: social norms and privacy. The word trust comes up a few times in the discussion although not as often as I think it should given its importance to the issue at hand.
Some of the focus is on how in the Internet age, information is much easier to forward and disseminate to large audiences than previously. However, it's not as though sensitive and private information that could be easily compromised did not exist before (and the piece certainly acknowledges this). Sure, perhaps it wasn't thousands discussing the nuggets of someone's private life but the wrong one, two or three people could be similarly detrimental in some cases.
Is there a technical fool-proof solution? Hardly. Trust is largely a social phenomenon.. whether that be trust in individuals or institutions. Bummer for this woman that the parameters of trust were not clearly deliniated among her friends.
I should add that for me, trusting friends with email messages also includes trusting that they know how to use the technology so as not to violate trust due to some accidental action.
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