Facebook bites
So email bites. Today an associate sent an email they shouldn’t. Not to worry, will be taken care of. just one extra recipient to call and ameliorate.
Facebook bites. Not in privacy. CEO Zuckerberg told us all that we don’t expect privacy and he is probably correct. Now I don’t think that we all necessarily want to voluntarily give up our right to privacy, but that we all put our status up on Facebook, pictures of spouse, kids, etc. Pretty soon we become an open book.
The recent debacle over privacy settings and the “turn Facebook off” day reminded me of the scene in Monty Python’ Life of Bryan when Stan wants to have a baby, so I paraphrase:
Judith: Why do you want to be Loretta, Stan?
Stan:I want to have privacy.
Reg: You want to have privacy?!?!?!
Stan: It’s every man’s right to have privacy if he wants them.
Reg: But you can’t have privacy.
Stan: Don’t you oppress me.
Reg: I’m not oppressing you, Stan — you haven’t got a womb. Where’s the privacy going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?
(Stan starts crying.)
Judith: Here! I’ve got an idea. Suppose you agree that he can’t actually have privacy, not having a womb, which is nobody’s fault, not even the Romans’, but that he can have the *right* to have privacy.
Francis: Good idea, Judith. We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have privacy, brother. Sister, sorry.
Reg: (pissed) What’s the *point*?
Francis: What?
Reg: What’s the point of fighting for his right to have privacy, when he can’t have privacy?
Francis: It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression.
Reg: It’s symbolic of his struggle against reality.
So assume the right to have privacy is there, while privacy, well, is nigh dead. Nada, Kaput. Gone. To paraphrase the famous Python Dead Parrot sketch:
‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This privacy is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e
rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the
bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PRIVACY!!
Where Facebook should be investing is teaching youngsters how to position themselves for the future. An elephant never forgets. But elephants do die. Databases never forget and never die. (or perhaps it is their backups that live forever.).
Indiscretions, pictures with a bung, proclivities, all live forever. Get used to it. Children must learn to manage their online image if they are to have a chance in their 20′s.
What is Facebook doing to teach them how to manage their online presence?