Are Our Transparent Lives Transient?

There’s an interesting comment by John Gapper in the FT that reviews the current behavior of Google when it comes to data and privacy. He suggests that once Google gets access to Facebook’s archives then we’ll all feel what it’s like to be naked in this digital world:

Eric Schmidt, its chief executive, made clear at Allen and Company’s Sun Valley conference for media and technology executives 10 days ago that resistance to Google is useless. He dismissed the refusal of social networks such as Facebook to let search engines scan their content as a “transient” phase.

…[These comments suggest] that Google will eventually be able to publish all the data it wants and be justified in so doing. Neither claim is true.

Taking privacy first, young people are more comfortable than previous generations about giving out personal details to all-comers by posting gossip and photos on blogs and social networking sites. That may mark a sea change in social attitudes but it could equally be, pace Mr Schmidt, transient. It will only take a few job rejections or disciplinary actions by employers and universities (Oxford is already trawling for miscreants on Facebook) for privacy to regain its former cachet.

While it is useful for such organisations, and for the nosy, to have the lives of others searchable, it is not always useful for those whose lives are searched. One of Facebook’s appeals is that the site has privacy controls that allow users to share information only among their friends or chosen networks. If everyone’s entry were made “universally accessible” and showed up on Google searches, Facebook would soon lose its appeal to adult users.

We’re still left wondering whether it’s all too late to complain. Technology will overcome all barriers that we put up. We just have to learn to play with it and wear our red coats rather than hide in our black ones.

FT (subscription required)