To create a Profile on a social network site is to capture a part of yourself and be prepared to bare this to the world (wide web). Such exposure comes with its risks. When 32 year old Peter Chapman was arrested in October 2009 for the kidnap, rape and murder of seventeen years young Ashleigh Hall, the rights to ‘privacy’ and ‘protection’ became key issues again.
Quick to point blame, the Media prefer to place a finger firmly at Facebook. Facebook’s strategy of ownership of your data where – ANYTHING – that you upload, publish, tag, share, write, delete etc. on the site is, by rights, theirs. Logic would follow then, that it is their responsibility to keep users ‘safe’ and protect the wider public at large (us) by the tracking and surveillance of accounts etc. Here, Facebook have a cunning get out of jail free clause: 1. they own your data; 2. they do not own you. Which equates to it being Your responsibility to make sure that Your account is safe and any subsequent information treated accordingly. In effect, if anything goes wrong it’s your fault, you have no right to data/information. Delete your rights. Delete safety. Delete trust. Delete Me.
We live, and increasingly for the younger generation who are growing up ‘on the web’ and with technology, in an information age. When we upload, download, share, tag and tweet we are forever in the public arena. In the most spied country in the world, even ‘offline’ we are under surveillance with an estimated 4.2million CCTV cameras recording over 80% of our lives outside of our homes.
Whose responsibility is it then to safeguard us? To keep from harm other teenagers who, like young Ashleigh Hall, just want to connect to friends. From this perspective technology is a bittersweet pill. GREAT! for sustaining and cultivating connections. CRAP! for protecting personal rights or keeping us safe from harm. And at its absolute worse putting us potentially in the way of new social risks. It is unrealistic to propose a social network lock down. Web profiles can reveal (and also hide) so much. This would be a darkness falling on personal freedoms at the loss of the flow and expression of social information. Many of those incidental connections simply would not be possible without the freedom to create Profiles, send requests, respond and grow with our networks. In this way it’s a personal and public autobiography that we have control of. BUT with predators like Chapman there will always be a threat.
Since the case came to light, nearly every Media headline has made specific reference to Facebook. Twittown have published an interesting article, unveiling the ‘who’s to blame’; from Facebook, to parents, to Government and finally back to Us. In one article we turn a full circle. From Facebook’s defence who have ownership of your information, but not your actions – so any action is your responsibiliy. You. The buck stops here.
About Dr Mariann Hardey
I hold the position of Lecturer in Social Media Marketing at Durham Business School. I also spend too much time enjoying social technologies, media+ stuff. That'll make me a Geek then. And a gal.
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