Harping on Privacy

Lately it seems that a lot of these posts are focusing on privacy, and the importance of protecting that privacy. The big "harp" for attorneys is protecting client privacy, but how much do we think about our own privacy, especially when we leave our "secure" office connection.

The funny (or coincidental) thing is that I received an email today addressing this problem. Some of the things discussed in the email, were discused by me in earlier posts, here and here. I'm reproducing the email "in toto" for your consideration:

One of the big risks [of blogging] is privacy (of course). Anything you place in the Internet is FOREVER. Even if you change your mind and attempt to delete items, they remain backed up in various places and are accessible forever. So, anything you publish online should always be considered permanent.

Privacy is an issue for two main reasons. First of all is identity theft. There are increasing numbers of bad guys wanting to steal the identity of you and your children. Although this is not usually dangerous, it's very, very inconvenient if you or your kids become a victim. Although these bad guys aren't usually out to harm you physically, it can actually lead to that.

The second reason privacy is important is for the safety of your family. Although unlikely, there are bad folks out there who prey upon vulnerable families. Information from a blog could assist someone to inflict harm in a variety of ways including burglary, kidnapping, harassment, lawsuits, etc. Also, photographs posted on blogs can be used to identify family members or photos can be manipulated (photoshopped) for other sinister purposes which I won't explain.

Many family bloggers think they are protecting their privacy by using only initials or aliases. This method doesn't work very well because over time bloggers usually slip and use real names. Or even if they're careful, someone will post comments on their blog with information the blogger themselves wouldn't have posted. (for example someone may say, "have fun on your cruise next week!" thereby alerting the entire world your house will be vacant.)

One of the reasons I've had some experience following blogs is tracking down child abusers. One of the ways we've alerted authorities across the country about child abuse is by reading blogs. It has been interesting to see how many folks think they are hiding their identity, but even a bunch of novice Social Workers can find the family. There's simply no way to make a blog meaningful or interesting while leaving out all identifiable information. We've found families by their mentioning of their pastor's name, their child's school mascot, etc, etc. And as I mentioned, often it's the comments posted by others to their blog which are very revealing. We've also been able to see who a person's Internet service Provider is and find their city. Computer geeks are a lot better at this than a bunch of Social Workers.

A private, password protected blog is better, but it also has it's problems. A friend of mine has a private family blog which he checked using my computer. My computer saved his login info, and I was then able to log in (by the way, my friend told me I could log in). This is just one simple example.

Finally, many folks think "we don't have to worry about stalkers and wackos, after all, we're not celebrities or public figures." Sadly, I've worked with too many people who suddenly found themselves in circumstances they never dreamed would happen to them. They became the victim of a random crime, witnessed a crime, became a juror on a high profile case, got sued, etc. etc. One sad case I worked on involved a high school girl who was stalked by a boy she met at school. In many of these cases folks have regretted the information made public, which was later used against them.