privacy

רוח משונה נושבת בארה"ב. הסנט מסמיך את הנשיא לנתק את האינטרנט וצוות הבטחון הלאומי יוזם מערכת זהות לאומית. דומה כי האמריקנים הם קרתניים לא פחות מאיתנו.

האינטרנט קמה במקורה להתמודד בדיוק עם הסכנה של כשל בנקודה מרכזית. הסכנה בזמן פיתוח האינטרנט הייתה של טילים או מפציצים סובייטים, כעת עליה להתמודד עם ממשלת ארצות הברית. מערכת הזהות הלאומית גם היא חסרת ערך, כאשר לא מעט מהפשיעה הקיברנטית נובעת מתוך הסחר הבין לאומי. האם מהיום נצטרך ויזה רק כדי לקנות ב-eBay?

Facebook has announced it's new privacy settings today. It is too early to say what (if any) impact this will have. It is also too late for Facebook to be trusted. From what I hear, I don't yet see a basic change in Facebooks understanding of peoples view of privacy. I also think that the assumption that people are willing to relinquish their privacy just to get a free or convenient service is incorrect. Look at the Buzz fiasco: in a nutshell, Google connected a service which contained private information (gmail) with a public service (buzz).

For many, Facebook was a service for private information. Sharing was for group of select people. One of the issues was that people with 4,000 so-called friends are not the same as people with 40 friends. For the former Facebook was the same as Buzz or Twitter - a megaphone; for the latter, facebook was the same as gmail or hotmail - a telephone. Expectations and usage were highly different.

Facebook is taking more and more liberties with it's users data. Robert Scoble believes it has reached a point of no return, while Jeff Jarvis (forever the optimist) believes that there is still hope. I don't think many understand what Facebook is doing. There are excellent articles on how to try and control your own settings, but even those will not save you from friends who have more laxed privacy settings.

The simplest example: if you "like" John Doe's photo or status then anyone who can see your likes will see that photo of status, even if John Doe's settings where to share this with his friends.

This gets worse when Facebook provides more and more tools for external sites to interact with the user profile. Unlike tools like Google Analytics, which will record the IP address which you are using, those tools will interact with your information. If you are currently logged in to Facebook, this has the potential of recording all your activities to you, especially with Facebook tendency to opt you in to any service which makes you actions more public.

As an IT manager, whenever I am faced with a new cool technology I am faced with a dilemma.
On personal level am always tempted to deploy it and see how it fans out. I am, after all, something of a geek. I am also outspoken and something of an exhibitionist.
On a managerial level I almost automatically call on the help desk to put on their flak jackets and helmets, arm the sysadmins with smoke and tear gas canisters, turn to the boffins and proclaim:
Our Sovereign Lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God Save the King!
IT is primarily the art of provisioning. Finding the technology that provides additional value to your business, and implementing it in the least disruptive way. Data and processes are assets we need to both protect and utilize. Social networking, Instant messaging, blogging and other means of communication may enhance a business, but may also put it in risk. This is the business perspective of IT.
There is also a human element. The technology divide has not decreased due to Internet. People can do much more with our computers, but they do not necessarily understand the implication more then they did before. If any thing, shining new interfaces hide mode complex issues then those that existed before. Web 2.0 adds even more complexities.
Web 2.0 tools can enable people to be more entrepreneurial, even in a corporate environment. As those tools are abandonment, and most are freely (or cheaply available), it seems almost inexcusable not to use them. But not all business or business users are entrepreneurial in the Web 2.0 way of thinking, for some, the overhead of learning and managing new technologies can actually reduce their productivity.

Imagine, if you will, Sir Richard Branson coming out with the following statement: "Planes crash, it's the gravity, live with it". I wonder how the stock of Virgin Atlantic would look like the day after. You see, planes do crash, but they are not suppose to. This is why an investigation takes place when one does crash.