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Why in the world would you post about your rectal surgery on the internet using your real name or an easily traceable identity if you did not want the internet

by aw3c2 17y ago

Why in the world would you post about your rectal surgery on the internet using your real name or an easily traceable identity if you did not want the internet to know about it. Missing privacy education maybe?

nfnaaron 17y ago
Because you think, through no longer valid experience or through misunderstanding, that you're only communicating with your friends. Email is a good example. You carry on a conversation about rectal surgery with email correspondents (maybe your doctor). You may have a vague idea that system administrators or men in the middle may be able to read those emails, but you have the conversation anyway because you assume (with some justification) those are unlikely circumstances. You have just posted about your rectal surgery on the internet (over which email travels). If you were to find your emails publicly searchable you'd be rightly upset. I originally thought my posts on facebook were only visible (using the English definition of visible, not facebook's co-opted definition) to my specific friends. Many people probably still think so, and it's not an unreasonable leap.
- megablast 17y ago
  Or maybe, after having to go through something like that, privacy is not the first, or last thing on your mind. After surgery, you are happy to hear the good news that things went well, you are on your way to feeling a lot better, and want to share that with everybody.
kmfrk 17y ago
The list could be much longer than it is. Facebook has a large reach, and some people just aren’t too bright: http://ryankuder.posterous.com/facebook-users-think-readwrite-web-blog-is-fa http://ryankuder.posterous.com/facebook-users-think-readwrit.... There are many cautionary tales of Facebook users getting into trouble, but, whatever you think of Facebook, there is only so much you can do to prevent people from embarrassing themselves.

by aw3c2 17y ago

nfnaaron 17y ago

Because you think, through no longer valid experience or through misunderstanding, that you're only communicating with your friends. Email is a good example. You carry on a conversation about rectal surgery with email correspondents (maybe your doctor). You may have a vague idea that system administrators or men in the middle may be able to read those emails, but you have the conversation anyway because you assume (with some justification) those are unlikely circumstances. You have just posted about your rectal surgery on the internet (over which email travels). If you were to find your emails publicly searchable you'd be rightly upset. I originally thought my posts on facebook were only visible (using the English definition of visible, not facebook's co-opted definition) to my specific friends. Many people probably still think so, and it's not an unreasonable leap.

megablast 17y ago
Or maybe, after having to go through something like that, privacy is not the first, or last thing on your mind. After surgery, you are happy to hear the good news that things went well, you are on your way to feeling a lot better, and want to share that with everybody.

kmfrk 17y ago

The list could be much longer than it is. Facebook has a large reach, and some people just aren’t too bright: http://ryankuder.posterous.com/facebook-users-think-readwrite-web-blog-is-fa http://ryankuder.posterous.com/facebook-users-think-readwrit.... There are many cautionary tales of Facebook users getting into trouble, but, whatever you think of Facebook, there is only so much you can do to prevent people from embarrassing themselves.