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This has tones of Zuckerberg's "privacy is passe" and Schmidt's "if you don't want anyone to know about something, don't do it". I pretty much despise this vie

by zmmmmm 17y ago

This has tones of Zuckerberg's "privacy is passe" and Schmidt's "if you don't want anyone to know about something, don't do it". I pretty much despise this view. I also think it is somewhat naive about how this is going to play out. People are not going to accept with good humour that their reputation is being trashed on line. And they are also not going to magically ignore other's indescretions. We're pretty much biologically incapable of that - when we see someone portrayed in a highly compromising light it makes psychological impressions that we can't just dismiss. The reason this hasn't really been a problem yet is just that it's still so new. What is going to happen as time goes on is that the lawyers are going to start getting involved. People are going to start suing left right and center. It's already happening - there was a case just today where a school is suing a parent for making disparaging comments on a web site: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/school-sues-parent-for-bitter-website-20100327-r4dg.html http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/school-sues-parent-for-bit... Things are going to deteriorate into a very messy and ugly fight until we sort out new norms and social conventions on line, and possibly, if things get bad enough, new regulation by the government (which I really hope we avoid, but the morons who routinely give up all their privacy on facebook for the fun of it don't give me much hope).

gizmo 17y ago
> but the morons who routinely give up all their privacy on facebook for the fun of it don't give me much hope Facebook has over 400 million users. That's more than there are people in the USA and Canada combined. When you reach those kind of numbers you can't credibly dismiss people who throw away their privacy as being morons. I bet that people will just grow numb of scandals in the way that people have grown numb about inefficiency in the government, misconduct by the police, or gross negligence in finance or about wars in foreign countries. People just shrug and go on with their lives.
- Psyonic 17y ago
  There's something about scandals that seem to keep people interested. That's all most reality TV is, really, scandals about people that you don't even know. Tiger Woods (and Jesse James) certainly weren't the first famous men to cheat on their wives... but people still eat it up like a greasy bucket of KFC
steveklabnik 17y ago
> the morons who routinely give up all their privacy on facebook for the fun of it I'm not going to vote you down, even though I'm one of those "morons." Just remember that not everyone else has the same values as you do, and some of us weren't tricked by the Big Evil Facebook Button, and made a conscious decision to put our information out there.
- zmmmmm 17y ago
  If you're making a conscious decision then I don't consider you a moron at all. And I'll readily admit that I'm being unkind to refer to those who do it unconsciously as "morons" - it's at least 50% Facebook's fault, possibly more. However I do consider it somewhat "moronic" to put all your information into a public space that openly states it is public and then complain and get upset that it is public later on. This happens regularly (last instance I saw was a bunch of people getting upset that a newspaper reprinted information, including photos, of a person from their facebook page). Politicians are all too ready to act to come to the "defense" of these people with new laws that might severely restrict or impede innovation in this space.
  - steveklabnik 17y ago
    > However I do consider it somewhat "moronic" to put all your information into a public space that openly states it is public and then complain and get upset that it is public later on. I am with you 100%.

by zmmmmm 17y ago

gizmo 17y ago

> but the morons who routinely give up all their privacy on facebook for the fun of it don't give me much hope Facebook has over 400 million users. That's more than there are people in the USA and Canada combined. When you reach those kind of numbers you can't credibly dismiss people who throw away their privacy as being morons. I bet that people will just grow numb of scandals in the way that people have grown numb about inefficiency in the government, misconduct by the police, or gross negligence in finance or about wars in foreign countries. People just shrug and go on with their lives.

Psyonic 17y ago
There's something about scandals that seem to keep people interested. That's all most reality TV is, really, scandals about people that you don't even know. Tiger Woods (and Jesse James) certainly weren't the first famous men to cheat on their wives... but people still eat it up like a greasy bucket of KFC

steveklabnik 17y ago

> the morons who routinely give up all their privacy on facebook for the fun of it I'm not going to vote you down, even though I'm one of those "morons." Just remember that not everyone else has the same values as you do, and some of us weren't tricked by the Big Evil Facebook Button, and made a conscious decision to put our information out there.

zmmmmm 17y ago
If you're making a conscious decision then I don't consider you a moron at all. And I'll readily admit that I'm being unkind to refer to those who do it unconsciously as "morons" - it's at least 50% Facebook's fault, possibly more. However I do consider it somewhat "moronic" to put all your information into a public space that openly states it is public and then complain and get upset that it is public later on. This happens regularly (last instance I saw was a bunch of people getting upset that a newspaper reprinted information, including photos, of a person from their facebook page). Politicians are all too ready to act to come to the "defense" of these people with new laws that might severely restrict or impede innovation in this space.
- steveklabnik 17y ago
  > However I do consider it somewhat "moronic" to put all your information into a public space that openly states it is public and then complain and get upset that it is public later on. I am with you 100%.