Privacy Online: Three can keep a secret...

I found this post difficult to write. There are so many aspects to our lives online and so many variations on each situation, and I’m no expert on the details of what companies or cyber-criminals can do. I’ve broken my thoughts into several sections.

This week’s essential question is, “Is there such a thing as privacy online?"

Not really, no.

To quote Ben Franklin, “Three can keep a secret when two are dead.” Whatever you communicate online has a concrete form that can be archived, phished, or forwarded. There are always three involved – you, your intended recipient, and the Internet. While you could argue that the Internet is dead (or at least, non-living), it is also your messenger, your secret-carrier. If your information is likely to arrive unlooked at, it is not because it’s so well protected, but because it passes unnoticed amidst the sheer volume of other, similar information.

What kind of privacy do we expect from our online lives? For the most part, people run into problems not because of the nature of the web, but because they misunderstand its nature. As educators, we can help our students understand the role of these new media and how to use them responsibly.

Thanks for the photo found through creative commons.