Testing the digital boundaries
The unfortunately named Christine and Aaron Boring, who recently accused Google of privacy violation, negligence, trespassing and unjust enrichment, have been told that their lawsuit has been dismissed. The couple were angry that their home appeared on the search engine’s Street View feature – apparently, the images showed the house, a pool area and garage, all of which were signposted as private – but have failed to collect the £17,700 in damages they were hoping for.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7898407.stm
In other news, the row about Facebook’s terms of service and their control over users’ details and content has escalated... With the Consumerist arguing that ‘anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later’, tens of thousands of users expressed dismay at what they saw as an invasion of privacy (led by the equally unfortunately named People Against the New Terms of Service – or, erm, PANTS).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7898164.stm
The web enables us to spread our digital wings like never before – but it seems that the more freedom we have, and the further we go, the greater our fear of flying. We spend more time than ever in digital worlds where we offer up staggering amounts of information about our personal lives, from photos and movies to blogs and messages, but are becoming more and more fiercely protective of our virtual belongings.
It might seem that the idea of the ‘digital world’ is a very old one now, even for the mainstream. But the fact is, in this ever evolving environment, we’re all still feeling our way, even after all this time. The idea of privacy in the nebulous digital world is still hard to grasp – our lack of physical boundaries makes it harder to know how far to go.
These days, all the pieces of our lives can be put online – in fact, we’re building our own digital lives every day, with the photos, movies, blogs and messages we upload. But we’re beginning to realise that all of these pieces, spread across the ether, don’t necessarily add up to a whole. Taken out of context, our online actions and belongings sometimes don’t do us justice, and we’re reluctant to set them free.
Maybe, until the creases are ironed out at least, there’s no substitute for face to face contact. Which is interesting, given the news that social networking can supposedly damage your health... (so they say: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7898510.stm) It’s only when our fears are allayed that we’ll be able to seize these opportunities and realise the potential of the digital world.