Teens, Social Media, and Privacy

antdude writes "Pew Internet reports that: 'Teens are sharing more info about themselves on social media sites than they have in the past, but they are also taking a variety of technical and non-technical steps to manage the privacy of that information. Despite taking these privacy-protective actions, teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-parties (such as businesses or advertisers) accessing their data.'"

Comments

Re:Newsflash: Teens make bad decisions

[Anonymous Coward]

If you see ads, i guess you might feel that way. I don't see ads, therefore it does me absolutely no good for them to have personal information about me.

Re:Newsflash: Teens make bad decisions

[Anonymous Coward]

I am against being tracked. If the advertisements were just relevant to the content of the site I was on, and not based on what the advertising server thinks I am interested based on it tracking my browsing habits, I wouldn't mind them.

Perspective...

[Alyeska]

Yesterday, I watched an old episode of "The Rockford Files" from 1977 -- a serious two-parter about a private consortium committing various crimes while setting up a secret computer system to track consumers. The episode ended with a black screen and a chilling message from NBC:

"Secret information centers, building dossiers on individuals, exist today. You have no legal right to know abut them, prevent them, or sue for damages. Our liberty may well be the price we pay for permitting this to continue unchecked -- Member, U.S. Privacy Protection Commission."

Re:Perspective...

[TapeCutter]

I know the episode your talking about and remember the message. It's probably no coincidence that Nixon split his guts to David Frost in 1977. The FBI under J.E. Hoover had been spying on US citizens for decades, they routinely infiltrated and sabotaged non violent groups such as anti-war protesters, as an example of how absurd it became they had a huge dossier on John Lennon. I'm not an American but I was 17 at the time and watergate was a huge affair, it was clear that the kind of thing that happened at the Watergate hotel was routine, the scandal was followed by some significant legislation on what data government could collect, and under what circumstances domestic groups could be infiltrated. It doesn't seem to have worked, I would not be at all surprised if someone found a similar dossier on the "Dixie Chicks" buried somewhere in Homeland security's basement.

As an Aussie I would like to give Letterman a pat on the back for what he's been doing with his "stooge of the day" segment, regardless of your views on gun control, the point he keeps hammering home is that all the stooges voted in direct opposition to the expressed wishes of an overwhelming majority of their constituents. Every single stooge on Letterman's show is a specific example of an individual politician doing their bit to "steal your liberty". Sure politicians should lead rather than follow the opinion polls, but when they are so out of kilter with them (in some cases taking a position opposed by over 90% of voters), they have some 'splaining to do.

Not really a surprise

[OhANameWhatName]

teen social media users do not express a high level of concern about third-parties (such as businesses or advertisers) accessing their data

And two year olds haven't learnt to balance on their feet yet. At what point of intrusive monitoring of minors do we consider this illegal without parental consent?

Re:Newsflash: Teens make bad decisions

[Joce640k]

I'm working in Hong Kong, and youtube has been bombarding me with ads for finding a foreign husband, which is pretty funny considering I'm a straight married guy.

I live in Spain. You should see the amount of adverts/phone calls I get for English lessons. "Targeted", indeed.

They may be tracking people like never before but business intelligence is still an oxymoron.

Re:Newsflash: Teens make bad decisions

[Joce640k]

Why is it a bad decision? The more advertisers know about me, the more likely I am to see ads for things I am actually interested in.

If you only use the internet for buying family groceries then that's probably a good thing, yes.

No, scratch that. I'm sure that even you don't want your medical-insurance company to know how many Cheetos you eat...

Re:Newsflash: Teens make bad decisions

[thesandtiger]

You're missing something though - the fact that everyone's indiscretions will be available will mean that indiscretions will matter less. In a world where everyone's got nude pics out there or whatever, nobody will give a fuck because giving a fuck is essentially risking mutually assured destruction, or, if they happen to be someone without easily discoverable dirt, they'll wind up being seen as a busybody asshole for bothering to try to shame someone.

Hell, the way tech is moving, we aren't that far from people being able to trivially find out anything they want, essentially instantly, about anyone they happen to run across with nothing more than a picture and a smartphone/watch/device.

For me, I learned a long time ago that rather than waste my energy fighting a losing (already lost?) battle, I would instead try to learn how to not give much of a fuck if people feel compelled to "violate my privacy" and how to mitigate the damage that could be done by a malicious person who chose to do so. 90% of this learning was becoming confident enough to just shrug and say "what's your point?" when nosy people try to shame me, and the other 10% was doing my best to ensure that the people who matter in my life aren't assholes.