Privacy and Confidentiality

Online privacy. The term is redundant.  New ways of sharing media, first via usenet and formal blogs then later social networks, have made it impossible to remain an enigma online.  Oh sure, one wonders, if I haven't done anything wrong, what would I have to hide?  Anything a person does could seem controversial to another as a consequence of living in a networked world.  Personalities and cultures, for example often come into conflict.  Looking to become an employee of X company?  Better be able to fit into the culture.  This means keeping under wraps your photos of last Saturday's wild evening, or other information you wouldn't want to share with everyone.  But how?  Facebook seems to offer privacy features, but eventually allows your info to become public.  Twitter and blogs can be hacked.  Official government memos could be leaked.  The relative comfort of life behind a screen is illusory; don't mention anything you wouldn't want everyone to know.  The consequences could get you fired, arrested, stalked, or worse.  Alternately, the lack of privacy gives new meaning to the phrase "paper trail"; look out online bullies, your actions are being documented.  Similarly criminals hiding out on social networks could be caught more easily than, say, hunkering down in the old safe house.             

According to Wikipedia, privacy is a condition of being selectively compartmentalized, anonymous, the decision to remain unidentified.  This sounds great when wishing to assume new identities or attempting to become more social in group settings.  The ability to hide creates a certain courage, but at what cost?  Many would argue that online socializing is not as beneficial as the real thing.  People become even more isolated as a result.  Studies show that the animal brain requires challenges when growing new neurons-the lack of real interaction could literally cause brain drain.

Confidentiality seems work in the opposite manner; access is granted to a select few relevant parties.  Lack of confidentiality may cause clients to cease sharing useful information with their lawyers, derailing precedent setting court cases.  Victims of a crime may not be as forthcoming if real identities are revealed.  Patients may not volunteer embarrassing symptoms if this were to become public.  Companies could not function if top secret details were to be published.  The "need to know" basis,however,  has all but disappeared.  More than ever, people simply have to trust one another to use discretion.  In the future, we will not be able to continue as a society if we cannot trust someone with our most private information.