When people say \u201cprivacy is dead\u201d, it\u2019s usually for one of two reasons.<\/p>\n
Either they truly believe that privacy is irrelevant or unachievable<\/a> in today\u2019s hyper-connected world or, more often, that not enough is being done<\/a> to protect privacy when huge amounts of personal information are being posted online.<\/p>\n Although I agree more could be done to protect privacy online, I believe that privacy is not dead, it\u2019s just changing forms.<\/p>\n While it\u2019s true that we\u2019re sharing more information online than ever before<\/a>, this doesn\u2019t mean that we no longer care about privacy.<\/p>\n On the contrary, some curious trends in how users share information on social media suggest we\u2019re actually becoming more cautious.<\/p>\n Back in the early 2000s when the first social networks MySpace and Facebook appeared online, users were much more open with their personal information.<\/p>\n Most had \u201cpublic\u201d profiles, which could be accessed by anyone, and few cared much about privacy.<\/p>\n But a host of high profile incidents have flashed through the mainstream media in the last decade. People have been fired from their jobs<\/a>, had their secrets revealed<\/a>, divorced<\/a> and cyberbullied<\/a> because of content on Facebook.<\/p>\n So it\u2019s no wonder that users began to understand the perils of poor management of their online privacy, and that Facebook users in particular have become more protective of their personal information.<\/p>\n Recent research proved<\/a> that people are increasingly limiting the data that is publicly shared with other Facebook users.<\/p>\n Despite these trends, parents of today\u2019s teens are particularly worried about the how their children manage their presence online.<\/p>\n The 2013 PEW report<\/a> on teens, social media and privacy, found that only 9% of teens were concerned about third-party access to their data on Facebook, while 80% of parents expressed high levels of concern about it.<\/p>\n Young people are certainly sharing more information about themselves through social media than before, and they sometimes get caught out.<\/p>\n Recently, a 14-year-old boy who sent a naked photo of himself to a girl on Snapchat found that the incident had been recorded by police<\/a>.<\/p>\n But perhaps parents could have a little more faith \u2013 the same report indicates that teens are being vigilant about their online privacy in different ways.<\/p>\n The researchers found that: 74% of teens had unfriended and 58% had blocked other users to avoid sharing information with them; 60% of teens kept their profile private; 58% said they shared inside jokes or cloaked their messages in some way; 57% decided not to post something online because it may have had negative consequences for them in the future; and 26% reported false information to help protect their privacy.<\/p>\n But there are some privacy issues that can\u2019t be addressed by adjusting user settings or sharing in-jokes.<\/p>\n Privacy is no longer only about what you say or disclose about yourself online. It\u2019s also about what others say or disclose about you. Privacy is becoming a collective phenomenon.<\/p>\n At the moment, mainstream social media only gives control over privacy settings to those who upload photos \u2013 not those who are in them.<\/p>\n Take a simple but illustrative example: if Alice uploads a photo of her and Bob, Alice is the one who controls who gets to see the photo.<\/p>\n But if Bob doesn\u2019t want Alice\u2019s friends to see him, it\u2019s up to him to get Alice to take the photo down, or else report it to the site administrator.<\/p>\n At the University of Lancaster, we have been looking at<\/a> how multi-party privacy conflicts emerge, and how we might be able to solve them.<\/p>\n We\u2019re conducting large-scale studies of a thousand social media users to help us develop the next generation of privacy tools and empower users who find themselves in these scenarios.<\/p>\n Privacy will keep changing forms in the future \u2013 particularly as new technologies are created, existing ones mature and users\u2019 perceptions of privacy evolve.<\/p>\n The biggest challenge will be to make sure that users have the tools they need to keep up with these changes, and protect their privacy as they see fit.<\/p>\n How children view online privacy differently from adults<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Unhackable version of Windows being developed<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nGeneration gap<\/h3>\n
Multi-party menace<\/h3>\n
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More on\u00a0security<\/h3>\n