With these tasks we were asked to think about what privacy means and when and why we might compromise this privacy. An interesting few weeks considering all the privacy headlines over the last few weeks.
Privacy has always been an emotive subject, whether talking about people going through your rubbish to today’s proliferation of data through the Internet. I am sure we all have stories of friends or relatives who have had their card details stolen, or have lost a job through over sharing on facebook. Every week there are stories about how technology is eroding our personal privacy.
Joinson and Paine in the course material talk about different kinds of privacy when talking about the internet. Informational covers the personal details like name and address, personal history etc – the kind of information we use to fill in forms. Accessibility access refers to access to a person – the ability to have a physical, sensory distance from others. Therefore CCTV intrudes on this, as would the recording of phone calls. Expressive privacy looks at the control we have make lifestyle choices, or define ourselves as a person, the ability to express oneself without undue influence, which is particularly interesting when thinking about elearning, and the hyper personal model we talked about in social cues, where we decide on the person we wish to portray in on online environment.
So, we are introduced to the idea of a privacy trade off. That there are some areas we compromise in order to benefit ourselves. What information are we willing to give away to get something back for ourselves? From my own point of view, the more I learn, the more I think about my security and what I am entering online. Again, thinking back to the interview I did, they use information about how learners interact with their learning environment to help them improve the learning design and activities.
Tristan, having work for some large businesses and been responsible for secure hosting, when asked said “The only way to truly solve issues of privacy is through education. I have rarely seen a PET that works. “
Linton Weeks successfully summarises many of the topics, so I suggest you read his Privacy 2.0……I may have need of my cookie monster after all! (And some more to do on this topic).
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