The Problem with Privacy

While it’s not a problem per se, I would argue the problem with privacy is the perception that anything is really private. Earlier this week it came out in a Buzzfeed news story that people’s private profiles were being accessed through a workaround source code hack. 

I have several issues with this. One, a simple source code can be accessed by anyone, even if you don’t have any real knowledge of coding, you can right click on almost any webpage and click “View Page Source.” Go ahead, try it, I’ll wait…

Yeah, that gives you full access to the code behind the page. Meaning any photos there you can access directly, just by copying the URL. 

My second issue is with Facebook’s spokesperson’s quote. “The behavior described here is the same as taking a screenshot of a friend’s photo on Facebook and Instagram and sharing it with other people,” a Facebook spokesperson told BuzzFeed News.

No it’s not. Source code is very different than a screenshot. Source code is a working line of HTML that a screenshot would be hard-pressed to replicate. I could screenshot a text message and change the name and number in some editing software. Leaving the image URLs in the source code means I can get at something that should be private, especially if a user has selected as such, and share it for everyone to see – directly, with no replication necessary.

My third issue, is the whole issue of privacy. We have tricked ourselves into thinking anything is ever private. We aren’t back in the early 90’s where you told your friend on the phone a secret and they didn’t tell anyone. It’s not like that anymore. With a phone and recording device in our pockets, at any moment we are able to take a photo or record someone, and generally nothing is private.

The idea that we can hide in a private Instagram to share content we don’t want others to see, is just plain silly. 

I’ve pushed this very hard in my social media professional development, and I cannot stress it enough. The digital world and the “real” world are the same thing. Nothing you do is private. People cannot hear your tone. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think you will offend someone; you can’t guarantee that anymore.

It was an older saying, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. Well, I say, if you wouldn’t say it publicly to someone’s face in a crowded room, why would you post it as private on your Instagram?

While it’s not a problem per se, I would argue the problem with privacy is the perception that anything is really private. Earlier this week it came out in a Buzzfeed news story that people’s private profiles were being accessed through a workaround source code hack.