Lori Andrews's new book throws light on how social networking is destroying individual privacy
The Web, and social networking in particular, is destroying individual privacy, says this book.
By Lori Andrews
Simon & Schuster India
Pages: 253
Price: Rs 699
This book discusses a subject that impacts all those who use the Internet and especially those who have signed up on social networks such as Facebook . Author Lori Andrews exposes how different entities have been tracking your Net usage, how much they know about you from the information you have willy-nilly disclosed and how they have been using this information to manipulate you in various ways.
Companies use your personal data on the Net to limit your choices, often forcing you to pay more for certain products. Banks may offer you loans determined by your online browsing history. Until the 1960s, there used to be a practice called 'redlining' in the United States, by which banks delineated areas on the map whose residents they considered an investment risk and refused to give them loans. "Now the map used in 'redlining' is not a geographic map, but a map of your travels across the Web," says Andrews. "A new term 'weblining' covers the practice of denying certain opportunities to people based on observations of their digital selves.
It is not only private companies and banks which are breaching your privacy. Andrews, who is also a lawyer, brings up several other cases. Take the American school district which photographed its students through its computer's webcam on school-issued laptops. Or take Facebook's sudden change in its privacy policies a few years ago, which made hitherto private pictures freely accessible. Many people lost their jobs as a result. Andrews mentions numerous legal battles over child custody which were decided on the basis of a MySpace post or a picture on Facebook.
Andrews also discusses online bullying, including the much-talked about Tyler Clementi case at Rutgers University in 2010. Clementi, who was gay, committed suicide after discovering he had been surreptitiously watched on webcam from another room by the Indian-born Dharun Ravi and another female student. (The book went to print before Ravi was convicted.) It mentions other instances of people committing suicide when the courts were unable to nail the guilty, since the laws have not kept up with advances in technology.
It provides countless examples of such bullying - or trolling, as it is called - and also shows how the anonymity offered by the Net is being misused to post hateful and threatening messages in the garb of 'free speech'. While largely US-centric, the book does talk about India too, pointing out that, India's IT Act notwithstanding, cyber protection laws here are weak and their implementation, weaker.
Today, Facebook has over 750 million users, To protect people online, Andrews advocates a 'Social Network Constitution' respecting users' privacy that governmental agencies or web-based advertising companies should be forced to follow. How exactly this can be done, given that the Net is used across 200 sovereign nations, remains to be seen.
So far, Andrews points out, the courts have indeed tried to protect people who have had their privacy invaded by infrared sensors. But they have also often supported Internet data interception, by security agencies and the like, a disturbingly widespread phenomenon. The book should be read by all those interested in online privacy issues and the online world in general. Unfortunately, though the writing is lucid, the densely packed pages and typography used make reading it a strain on the eyes.
