Online Privacy?

www.newsweek.com/2010/10/22/forget-privacy-what-the-internet-knows-about-you.htm



I read this article after thinking the same thing earlier in the day. I am guilty of "googling" myself. It is incredible the amount of information that I picked up about myself. Some information that I voluntarily provided to the world, and information that I have not.



Some of these social networking sites, give us a false sense of security, by placing privacy settings. The problem is that all our likes, interests, ideas and thoughts leaves a footprint of who we are accessible to the world in some form. The groups and "likes', tweets we follow and whatever else we join are being counted.



The most interesting aspect from a lawyers point of view are the havoc that social media is wreaking on private lives, marriages and employment. People are getting arrested for comments made to others, or getting their identities stolen, divorces and break ups are occuring from improper behavior with others, and loss of employment from either preoccupation with social media or evidence of unprofessional shenanigansin our private matters. Yet with all these stories that we are becoming more and more familiar with, we still come back for more. We can't stay away. I think social media has most startlingy brought about a hyper awareness of human insecurities, and how fragile we are.



I think we are just coming into the inception of the legal fallout that social media, and the over connection it brings into our lives. The best or worst is definitly in front of us.