Leave me alone?

"A state of perfect privacy would be akin to a state of absolute solitude, which is not only undesirable but also the harshest modern judicial punishment short of the death penalty" (Tufecki, 2008: 22).

I have written several articles where I discuss the conundrum of disclosure vs. privacy-concerns with regard to social technologies (in my doctoral thesis, and three (!) forthcoming articles this autumn*). Zeynep Tufecki's "Can you see me now? Audience and disclosure regulation in online social network sites" has nevertheless escaped my attention till now. I still haven't read it, only the two first pages. The obvious truth of the above quote made me stop. I do believe the essence is quite same as what I have written a number of times already. Tufecki, however, refers to Irwin Altman's conception of privacy as a balance between optional withdrawal and disclosure. She emphasizes the difference between Altman and the limited conception of privacy as social withdrawal (the right to be let alone), the latter conception being flawed: We do not want to be let alone at all times. Human beings crave disclosure to some extent.

Which is what I find again and again. I'm currently working on a small privacy-focused research-project for the Concumer Council of Norway (together with my collegues Petter Brandtzæg and Jan Håvard Skjetne). We've conducted interviews with Facebook-users aged 16 - 50 as well as a a survey (her er prosjektets Facebookgruppe). A report in Norwegian will be published later this autumn, but I am sure we will also write a couple of conference/journal articles.

* Forthcoming articles where I discuss social technologies and privacy:

Lüders, M, Brandtzæg, P. and Dunkels, E. (forthcoming 2009): Risky Contacts. In S. Livingstone & L. Haddon (Eds.), Kids Online: Opportunities and Risks for Children: The Policy Press (link)

Lüders, M (forthcoming 2009). Why and how online sociability became part and parcel of teenage life. In R. Burnett, M. Consalvo & C. Ess (Eds.), The Handbook of Internet studies. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell (link)

Lüders, M. (under utgivelse). Ung, dum og deilig? In Clemet, K & Egeland, J.O. (red), Til Forsvar for Personvernet (arbeidstittel). Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Heekya: Wikipedia for stories

I'm a lousy blogger, I know. But if you happen to visit, have a few minutes to spare, an interest in social/collaborative storytelling and the potentials emerging by integrating social network sites, take a look at this project. Looks very interesting.


Heekya: Wikipedia for Stories from DavidAdewumi on Vimeo.

Superstreng

I still find it utterly uncomfortable to talk on radio. But you know, I guess the practice is valuable. Or rather, I don't find it very uncomfortable to talk, but to listen to myself afterwards. A couple of weeks ago I visited Eirik Newth's "Superstreng"-show, and we were of course talking about social networking services, especially Facebook. Kind of common sense stuff. Here's the podcast. It's in Norwegian of course.

Facebook is highly profiled as vicious by the mass media these days. They apparently exploit all your personal information and intend to use your private photos in commercial campaigns. Or something. If you know Norwegian, you might want to read Ove Skåra's answers to readers of the Norwegian tabloid VG. Skåra represents the Norwegian Data Inspectorate.

I don't have the time to comment. Obviously, I have read Facebook's terms of service. My short answer is that mediated practices are experienced as so meaningful that they outweigh the perceived threats to privacy.