Friday debate - 'Privacy is dead - get over it!'

There is a divide online between those that share and those that don't.

Some (like me) publish everything (contact details, social lives, interest, professional lives and diaries). Others don't get the whole sharing thing. They think it's pretentious and presents a serious risk to their personal security and reputation.

My belief, is in the same way the music industry could not stop the tide of music sharing, it also will go a similar way for the sharing of personal information.

What is privacy, and why are some people so precious about it? http://www.thefreedictionary.com/privacy defines it as

"The state of being free from unsanctioned intrusion"

But I don't get it - what are people SO worried about others finding out? Why is the intrusion so painful?

The only answer I see that has some merit, is where information shared, is used by someone to steal, incriminate or harm, and yes the web makes that a little easier. However, you have a responsibility online to choose what you share and with whom. Some people go on a friend collecting hunt adding hundreds of people to their networks. It's a bit like telling everyone you meet, where your safe is in your house rather than an important few. Stupid.

My theory is that privacy is a kick-back from older times. From times where where secrecy was part of the fabric of society. Where political and professional gains came from the ability to know more than others, or hide truth in the same way. Today though that's not easy to do. Employees blog and facebook, customers twitter, users chat in forums. Look at the trends of open source applications, the trends of customers wanting to know the bad as well as the good. We have a gazillion trashy magazines designed to satisfy an obsessed hunger for celebrity news. Everyone has a camera on their phone, and already there is technology to turn every single one of us into a reporter/ broadcaster. The barriers of privacy are falling down all around us.

The desire for privacy is a generic response to a lack of trust in people and systems. But every piece of information we own has a different value and risk. Even so, without the Internet a percentage of information still gets leaked into the public domain. The great thing about the web, is that it provides controls and the ability to manage your information. Once people start trusting in these systems, then they can lose their inhibitions to share more information with the wider world.

In a book by Stephan Baxter and Arthur C Clark 'The Light of Other Days' there is the concept of Worm Cams, video camera's that use quantum physics/ worm wholes to let people view any place on earth without the other party seeing. The concept is explored in that privacy completely collapses, and humanity embrace a culture that is no longer handcuffed to worrying what people might think. People build houses with translucent walls, Wars never get started as each side can view the tactics of the other side. Instead people work together sharing and living their lives in the open. The book goes further when they can view any place in any time! Suddenly people can't lie about anything. It's a great book..

This is of course science fiction, but a taste of this is already happening. We are the first generation to experience social networking and look how much information is put online? Imagine 50 years from now, when we wear our technology or it's even part of us. Imagine when feelings and emotions are automatically transferred to our network. Your child is distressed and you don't just know about it you 'feel it'. I have photo's from my childhood of three, maybe four events a year. My kids will have photo's videos, blogs DAILY for their entire lives. We have barely touched online sharing I promise you and what you think is private now, will be standard to share in years to come.

For social networking to function we have to have identities online. As the technology and concepts evolve, eventually we will have a single ID like it or not. This ID will be your key to services and tools and your ability get the most out of them will be based on how much information you share. Those who still hold back on privacy, will ultimately become 2nd class citizens online. Want an example? If you have a google account, when you search it 'learns' and make suggestions based on your history. Is this useful? Yes. Are there security risks? Of course? Are their negative implication - Yep - Google collects information on everyone and passes it onto advertisers. But you and I both know, that eventually we'll all subscribe to something similar.

Privacy right now is a choice, you can ignore facebook or use it. If you use it you can decide how much info to publish. And you can decide who can see what and how much of it.

But as these services and networks provide more and more services that add value to our daily lives, the choice becomes easier. Privacy will be the shackles that slow you down, hold you back and exclude you from opportunity. Example - most employers will search online before interviewing someone. What's worse, them finding nothing, or finding something YOU choose to publish?

Welcome to the new world, share, or miss out.