I don't think I've mentioned First Monday in these parts ever before which is a huge oversight on my part as First Monday is one of the most thoughtful pieces of media on the net about the net that you'll ever find no matter how high or low you look. Really.
Case in point is an article from First Monday's upcoming August issue. The peer-reviewed piece by Ms. Eszter Hargittal and the omnipresent Ms. Danah Boyd, pictured to the left and not wearing one of her infamous hats. These two have teamed up to research and write an article about how 18- and 19-year-olds feel about Facebook's privacy settings / options.
Thesis: This cohort doesn't feel very strongly about privacy issues and doesn't think too much about their privacy on Facebook. Finding: Wrong.
It's important to note here that this study was conducted over a year and surveyed how attitudes might have evolved. It's also important to note that the research was funded, in part, by the MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft and Harvard's Berkman Center. Ms. Boyd works for Microsoft (which always struck me as rather incongruous until I considered what I might do if Microsoft offered me enough money).
Of course I knew this all along because I have a 17-year-old who has probably contributed terabytes of data to Facebook only I only have a vague reckoning of this as she's my friend but understands how to manage her privacy controls so that I can only see when she's online and that's about it. Good for her?
As Esther Dyson forecasted decades ago, online privacy is going to be a huge business if it isn't already what with companies such as Reputation Defender popping up here and there. Soon enough, we will be working with brokers who will auction off slivers of our privacy to the highest bidder. For example, I can easily envision a future whereby Mr. Bezos will call me up to make me an offer: He will give me a deep discount on future purchases over a period of time if he's allowed to sell my purchase history to the highest bidder, including my email address and telephone number. Gentle reader, you might want to start figuring out what your price will be because it's coming sooner than we think.
