As the story of Facebook's upcoming new "upgrades" leak out in the press, I have to say that I am very worried about "Big Brother" sharing our browsing history to all of our hundreds of "closest" friends on Facebook or any other social media site. They are announcing that as of March 1st they will change everyone's home page to a new format that will share alot of our past histories online. And you can't opt out.
According to news reports in the mainstream media "friends" and visitors to your page will be able to see some of your browsing history on Youtube, Gmail and some other file sharing sites. For gay people especially who are not out to the entire spectrum of their family and acquaintances...this would appear to pose no small problem.
Google has also announced plans to share your browsing history with advertisers to "tailor" their marketing to your apparent hobbies and interests.
Does Aunt Tilly need to know that we watched drunken frat brothers play a game of "gay chicken"? Does cousin Bob in Minnesota need to know that we watched 2 hot dudes sucking face poolside? Just because Facebook and other sites have the ability to electronically track our movements online doesn't mean that they should. And it certainly doesn't give them the right to share all of this more or less publicly without our consent. At this point I am considering closing my major social networking sites altogether.
We already know that potential employers are increasingly researching our public networking site profiles before deciding whether or not to hire us.
Even for straight people it's frightening in its implications. Does the married Baptist minister want his congregation to know that he has a fondness for watching college cheerleading squads perform? Even if they based hundreds or thousands of miles from where he lives? Or that the other spouse has been researching sites for divorce attorneys? This whole thing for millions of people has the potential to be a ticking time bomb of unintended consequences.
None of us know for sure how mundane or seemingly intrusive and detailed this sharing of our browsing history on other sites will be or will become. And that's the scary thing. All we know for sure is that March 1st is looming quickly on Facebook. I'm not out to promote hysteria here. But I am worried.
I hope we can have a rational discussion on this and share the facts with each other that come out in the press on this matter.
According to news reports in the mainstream media "friends" and visitors to your page will be able to see some of your browsing history on Youtube, Gmail and some other file sharing sites. For gay people especially who are not out to the entire spectrum of their family and acquaintances...this would appear to pose no small problem.
Google has also announced plans to share your browsing history with advertisers to "tailor" their marketing to your apparent hobbies and interests.
Does Aunt Tilly need to know that we watched drunken frat brothers play a game of "gay chicken"? Does cousin Bob in Minnesota need to know that we watched 2 hot dudes sucking face poolside? Just because Facebook and other sites have the ability to electronically track our movements online doesn't mean that they should. And it certainly doesn't give them the right to share all of this more or less publicly without our consent. At this point I am considering closing my major social networking sites altogether.
We already know that potential employers are increasingly researching our public networking site profiles before deciding whether or not to hire us.
Even for straight people it's frightening in its implications. Does the married Baptist minister want his congregation to know that he has a fondness for watching college cheerleading squads perform? Even if they based hundreds or thousands of miles from where he lives? Or that the other spouse has been researching sites for divorce attorneys? This whole thing for millions of people has the potential to be a ticking time bomb of unintended consequences.
None of us know for sure how mundane or seemingly intrusive and detailed this sharing of our browsing history on other sites will be or will become. And that's the scary thing. All we know for sure is that March 1st is looming quickly on Facebook. I'm not out to promote hysteria here. But I am worried.
I hope we can have a rational discussion on this and share the facts with each other that come out in the press on this matter.
