The New York Times (registration required) runs an interesting piece about how Google's power makes it very easy to find out stuff about people. "These days," writes Jennifer 8. Lee (I jest not), "people are seeing their privacy punctured in intimate ways as their personal, professional and online identities become transparent to one another. Twenty-somethings are going to search engines to check out people they meet at parties. Neighbors are profiling neighbors. Amateur genealogists are researching distant family members. Workers are screening co-workers. In other words, it is becoming more difficult to keep one's past hidden, or even to reinvent oneself in the American tradition."
Unless you change your name, of course. But it got me thinking: surely if we publish something on our home pages, like family snaps, personal information or our online diaries, we expect others to be able to find it? And if we contribute to online discussions, then we're saying things in public. It's like standing up at Speakers' Corner.
Of course, there's lots of stuff out there that I'm now slightly embarrassed at, and you can find out a lot about me just by doing a Google search. Does this infringe my privacy, though? No, it doesn't, although I reserve the right to think you're a little odd if you decide to go and start digging around.
