According to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, the rise of social networking online means that people no longer have an expectation of privacy. Yet
Uncle Ben once told Peter Parker that with great power comes great responsibility. So it is with freedom on the internet. Interestingly enough, a majority of Dutch users think that internet users are responsible themselves for guarding their private information. While a majority of German users puts that responsibility in the hands of companies. And one thirds of American and Canadian internet users feel that the government should do something about it.
It seems high time that we change our viewpoint of the relationship between us and the companies that we choose to give out or private information to. This is not the relationship anymore in the traditional sense that exists between consumers and the producer of a product. But as security expert Bruce Schneier points out in a recent Cryptogram: “We’re not Google’s customers, we’re Google’s product that they sell to their customers.” This is not an exaggeration; it's a business model. After all, we do not actually pay for anything, we are simply enlisted like drones into the armies of Facebook and Google. We are the true googlebots.
And the real question is: Do we mind? The real answer seems to be: “In theory: yes, in practice: no” Maybe its just down to good old human nature. So far we seem to have a lot of fun with these services. And we have not yet felt much of the possible effects that this commodification might entail. Who knows what the future will bring. In Schneiers sketch of the internet future: “It’s a three-way relationship: us, the IT service provider, and the advertiser or data buyer. And as these noncustomer IT relationships proliferate, we’ll see more IT companies treating us as products. If I buy a Dell computer, then I’m obviously a Dell customer; but if I get a Dell computer for free in exchange for access to my life, it’s much less obvious whom I’m entering a business relationship with. Facebook’s continual ratcheting down of user privacy in order to satisfy its actual customers—the advertisers—and enhance its revenue is just a hint of what’s to come.”
Post Script: Yes I know there is a Google Ad on the page. I mean this ironic.
