{"id":196,"date":"2011-02-08T07:19:05","date_gmt":"2011-02-08T12:19:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ict-pulse.com\/?p=196"},"modified":"2011-02-08T07:21:17","modified_gmt":"2011-02-08T12:21:17","slug":"giving-up-the-ghost-is-privacy-just-an-illusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ict-pulse.com\/2011\/02\/giving-up-the-ghost-is-privacy-just-an-illusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving up the ghost: Is privacy just an illusion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few months, the public release of classified military and diplomatic information by Wikileaks has spurred widespread controversy and raised questions on transparency and confidentiality. Further, last month, the media reported that courts in the United States were increasingly granting access to private posts on Facebook in civil proceedings. These unrelated incidences, among others, are suggesting that the protection that had been accorded to matters deemed \u201cprivate\u201d is eroding\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

As Internet prices have dropped and connectivity has improved, we have been spending increasing amounts of time online. Moreover, with the advent of social media (such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace) along with the multitude of online services that are available for our convenience, we are sharing more of our lives over the Internet.<\/p>\n

With regard to many of the websites we frequent, we perceive them as controlled environments that are carefully managed and in which we have some degree of control. For example, we can limit the amount of information that is publicly available, to whom we connect, and whether our information is given to third party vendors. As a result, we often gloss over the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies many sites require us to accept as a condition of registration. More importantly, we feel safe enough to share with persons connected to us, all sorts of information about our lives and ourselves. However, as mundane as we believe this information might be, it is a highly sought after resource in our information-driven world.<\/p>\n

Perhaps to illustrate, we can each begin to consider our digital footprint:<\/p>\n