Due to an Aristotelian confluence of events, I’ve recently been made aware of, and subsequently concerned about, just how much personal information I, or anyone, should “actively” provide over the internet.
Having practiced law for a decade, I’m used to having to divulge certain personal information to the general public. Indeed, I’ve never really given it much of a second thought; if you want a license to practice law, your potential clients are legally entitled to know as much about your background as possible for them to get a “warm and fuzzy” about hiring you. No problem, it’s one of the necessities associated with doing business as a licensed lawyer.
This brings into sharp relief the difference between various internet businesses (which are potentially global in nature) and the practice of law (which is essentially a local activity regulated mostly on a State level).
Although I have been working indirectly in the technology field for close to 15 years, I am relatively new to the medium on a personal level. I started this blog towards the middle of last year (much of which was accidentally deleted), and I have also launched several “e-commerce” websites in the interim. Given the obvious need to generate “traffic” to those new sites, I understood the need to publicize them as much as possible, both organically and via more traditional means of paid advertising.
Those projects have not generated the revenue I had originally intended and hoped for. I now see greater potential in capitalizing on my legal prowess and, as such, I am now pursuing work as a legal management consultant and/or in-house legal counsel. In so doing, as with any marketing campaign, I am essentially required to advertise a new product — in this case, me. This poses a unique problem given the underlying nature of the internet.
Just how much information is too much information?
Admittedly, I had not given the issue much thought before today. As noted above, I’m already familiar with maintaining a relatively public profile. Further, people with much higher public profiles than I have widely publicized their own personal information, and they don’t seem to be terribly concerned. Moreover, being physically fit and well trained, I thought no need to insert any level of insulation between my personal and public self (as it were).
I still beleive this to some extent. However, several matters came up today which have prompted me to re-think my position.
First, I learned today that some of my female friends have been receiving harassing emails and commentary from a number of online “trolls.” These are really very nice people who do not deserve to be subject to such conduct. Regardless, as females, they were apparently smart enough to implement at least some precautions just in case something like this ever happened. Due to my infallible “Y” chromosome, however, I never considered that someone would attempt to “troll” my sites for the sole purpose of harassing your Faithful Narrator. In retrospect, I’ve been extremely naive or extremely lazy – either one being entirely possible. To date, I luckily have not yet been subject to such behavior, but that could always change.
Also today, I was contacted by an old friend living across the country from whom I had not heard in over 6 years. In this particular case, the contact was extremely welcome. I had long been wondering about her and was very pleased to hear how well she is doing. However, it also raised the privacy issue again – only hours after learning about the problems mentioned in the immediately preceding paragraph. In this case, it wasn’t so much that my friend found my personal address or phone number (which she did not), but it brought into sharp relief the ease with which one could potentially obtain such information it they so desired.
Finally, I have also been talking with Dennis Smith over at www.WirelessJobs.com, who has very generously offered to publicize my profile on his website, which is frequented by a variety of recruiters in the tech field. I had initially provided Dennis my Resume several days ago in order to assist him with his kind offer. This morning, however, he asked me if I wouldn’t feel better redacting my personal contact information from the document, since he plans on posting it on his site. Once again, it was not the concept that floored me, but more the way he asked the question. It made me think that I had been very naive in assuming it would be safe for me to provide such private information in an online public forum.
After thinking about it, I realized that Dennis is absolutely correct. Despite the fact that I’m marketing myself, I probably should not be so amenable to publicizing everything about myself.
Which leads again to my underlying questions — just how much is too much? Where does one draw the line?
I’m not sure I have a proper answer to either of these questions.
Lord Protector of KangWorld…
The challenges I see are far too many. When I read that people cloak themselves, it’s only a matter of time before you can find out who they are, where they live and other savory (or not so savory details).
With regard to hiding my identity, I really cannot be bothered. Property records are on-line and anyone can purchase basically anything if they’re willing to cough up the $34.95.
We live in a society that no longer values privacy. Our very own government leads by example in failing to protect the rights of the citizens under The Constitution.
At this point…and perhaps it’s in my weakened state from being trolled, there is little we can do.
Kang,
I understand your frustration, and I wish there was more I could do to help ease it. Similarly, I also see where you’re coming from, but I’m not sure I entirely agree – for a couple reasons.
First of all, you’re absolutely correct that if someone wants to find you, generally speaking, they’ll be able to find you. However, there have also got to be ways to insulate oneself (through the use of intermediaries, etc.); it’s just a question of how far one wants to go to do so. Since there’s no such thing as true privacy anymore, it’s merely a questions of how much is it worth to you to spend for what level of privacy?
Second, and perhaps this is only because I referenced her the other day, but regardless of what “President Eightball” does, I beleive that we can always change course so long as there are like-minded people out there concerned with the preservation of our personal privacy rights. I still choose to beleive in the words of Margaret Meade:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Amen.
I should like to believe we can affect change and push for tighter restrictions with regard to our identities. I cannot, however, help but wonder how much money the credit and banking industries make off of fraud. If it were a true loss; this would have been remedied a long time ago. (as an example)
The difference is the medium. Before, tracking someone down meant going to their town, looking through public records. It meant digging through phone books. It was just as possible, but it involved a lot more legwork. Now you can put their name in Google.
There are certainly ways to protect your privacy. The question becomes at what point does the protection of your identity hinder more than protect? I’ve got a low profile in Google. As of right now there is one hit on my exact name, and that’s because a friend had to restore their web site from a backup. I have a unique name, I guess. I used to ask people to take that down. I think now, I’ll leave it.
The creepy part, to my mind, is that it has become so easy to peer into someone’s private life, to follow them around digitally, and it can be done with virtual anonymity as long as the voyeur remains silent. I have no idea how many people put me in Google and follow me around the web. I guess the way to deal with that is either pack up shop and go home, as it were, or else acknowledge the fact and understand that what you put out there is out there.
The third option is to ignore the fact, but I think that eventually comes back to bite you in the ass. Until last year, I’ve never really thought about this kind of stuff. I’ve been interacting online for more than half my life and never had an issue with someone really trying to violate the reality barrier until then. I think part of it is that I was actually fairly sheltered in the communities that I hung out in. Everyone was old school; the hardcore geeks have a sense of internet etiquette and propriety, I think. You see the issues with the script kiddies and the casual users. The people with actual technical ability in general seem less likely to abuse that ability to harass other people.
Maybe it’s the geek thing all over again, they generally aren’t the bullies.
I’m rambling.
Anyway, I think the information you choose to put out there is up to you. My boyfriend had his phone number and home address up on his web site for years and never had any problems. He took it down because of my psycho. For myself, I am comfortable with the info I have out there. I understand what it is and what the implications are and how to make it go away.
Right now there is a certain feeling of anonymity behind the keyboard, both on the part of the user and on the part of the person harassing them. It’s an illusion, both ways.