Is Anything Really Private Anymore?

Theme 7. Privacy in the age of Google.

Privacy in the age of Google…Is that even possible? Simply Googling a person’s name can bring up tons of personal information. And that’s information from Facebook alone! This is due to the fact that many Facebook users put his/her entire life story on the opening page of Facebook. Just a quick glance at someone’s Facebook and many of times, one knows a person’s exact location at the moment, the High School he/she attended and the individual’s birthday. Of course, if that isn’t enough, if an individual really wanted to, he/she could discover more information simply by reading through the “wall post” messages of the individual. Everyone can see these posts, so why not take a look? That’s where Facebook stalking comes into play.

How does one know they are being Facebook stalked? When a conversation on Facebook suddenly becomes the knowledge of another party, a Facebook stalker has emerged. A couple of weeks ago, this personally occurred to me. I was talking to an old friend, over Facebook “wall posts,” about my adventure riding her horse. While riding my friend’s horse, the horse spooked because he was afraid of squeaky wheel from a wheelbarrow. I had ridden my friend’s horse before and the horse had never spooked before. My friend explained that her horse spooks easily when the weather is changing. This conversation sounds trivial enough, but a day after this conversation, a mutual friend of ours was aware of the entire conversation. She claimed that she heard that the horse spooked while I was riding him. But why would this come up in a conversation between the two individuals, when one of them does not ride? And the possibility that the two could have met and discussed the event in the one-day span is highly unlikely. It is more likely that our mutual friend was bored at her mundane job and read the conversation on Facebook.

So how can anyone keep anything completely private, in a world that converses the business of others constantly? Well keeping one’s extensive plans a secret, to even the closest people in his/her life, might be a good start. This is what writer Evan Ratliff endured for his editor. The “Wired” magazine set up a contest to see if anyone could truly “disappear in the digital age”. Anyone of the magazine’s readers, who could locate Evan Ratliff, would receive a $5,000 bounty. Because Evan attempted to vanish completely from society, it required his extended period, of one month’s time, intense planning. This included purchasing pre-paid cell phones for his girlfriend and parents (for emergencies only), buying gift cards to stores he couldn’t live without and getting a $60 oil change in his car (who would think someone who is going to vanish and sell his car would do such a thing). Throughout his disappearing act, Evan took on challenges of his new identity. Simply by stating that he had lost his id, many people would let him pass. This idea is fascinating. It gives the impression that an id really isn’t needed. Eventually though, Evan was discovered in New Orleans. A place devastated by hurricane Katrina, but the digital age still shone through. Two men, Leach and Fillinger, found Evan near a little bookstore, attempting to complete another one of his book reading challenges.