Expectation of Privacy

[kevin_standlee]

The little contretemps going on in the previous entry and other places that I'd point except I fear that I'd be accused of abuse is another example of people having a misplaced sense of privacy in their LJs and other blog-like things. If you write in public, expect anyone in the world who can operate a web browser to be able to see it. When I write about things that I don't want indexed by Google Search, I friends-lock them, which mostly works. If I only want myself to see them, I mark them private, something I've done only a couple of times because such entries are usually better not saved at all -- write and delete if necessary, with the computer off line, to get it out of your system, but if you save it to your LJ, you're risking setting it loose when you didn't want to do so. I have done so a couple of times.

And specifically to me, if you don't want me to see it at least in summary, never mention "Hugo Award," "NASFiC", "WSFS," "World Science Fiction Society," "Worldcon," or "World Science Fiction Convention" in an unlocked top-level post. (Comments don't appear to get indexed so well.) I (and several other people) have those phrases on a standing Google search for Mark Protection Committee purposes. (And in fact, we've found potential mark offenders that way; not people complaining about the Hugos or whatever, but people misusing the service marks, which is not the same thing at all.) We don't always comment, but sometimes we do. In this case, I would clearly have been better off keeping my mouth shut, but y'all know how difficult that is for me.

But otherwise, if you write in public, you should have no expectation of privacy of your writing. You may think you're writing for just a few friends, but you can be seen by anyone. And that includes what I'm writing right now.

Comments

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

But otherwise, if you write in public, you should have no expectation of privacy of your writing. You may think you're writing for just a few friends, but you can be seen by anyone. And that includes what I'm writing right now.

Well, some people are twice fools: once for forgetting that many people are connected to teh interweb...and a second time for getting angry that one of those people found them. *eye rolling*

I remember being utterly gobsmacked the first time someone who wasn't on my friends list of Live Journal said, "Yep. I read that on your blog." There was this weird feeling of "gosh, wow!" followed by one of "do I look okay? any smudges?"

But if someone writes a public blog, they'd best be prepared for public comment on that blog.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Yup. I've spent considerable effort teaching my children this. Basically, every few months I try to find them on the web, and if I can, they lose. If I find identifying information, they get in trouble. We've talked a lot about how with the Internet Archive and the sales of web properties, it's never too early to start thinking about Internet privacy.

[timill]

Seen (by a friend) on a financial advice forum:

| All the saga's of my flat I have posted here in confidence
| and for support I have discovered this morning are being read
| by my neighbour and she has brought them up with the solicitors.

To which my friend commented (elsewhere!):
"She posted /in confidence/ on a hugely popular Internet forum? This is an intelligent young woman, a chartered accountant. With, apparently, the commonsense of a noodle."

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

My ex's mother was officially a genius. When her car's engine burst into flame (yes, because she was not taking proper care of it) she turned into the first gas station she saw to get help. It quite surprised her that all the other customers drove off without paying, but she was most gratified by the speed of the service from staff. Yes, WTF is a genius anyway, some technical term for idiot savant?

[bovil.livejournal.com]

I'm staying out of this one. As soon as I read her profile, I saw that "I rant, I rave, I whine" was perhaps more accurate than she may have intended.

[debgeisler.livejournal.com]

Seems to me a good thing I didn't follow Kevin's link to the original discussion. I just would have wanted to hit something, and I mostly *like* my computer.

[thirdworld.livejournal.com]

Sigh. Teh interwebs iz sooo confewzink. Odd that you even had to point this out.