Privacy Policies

The scope of the digital privacy arena is incredibly broad. In this quest, you will investigate just two elements of this topic and will consider the impact on your online personal privacy.

Before we take a look at your privacy online, let’s consider one of the devices you use to be digitally connected. Namely, your cell phone.

Stop for a moment and think--what can your cell phone tell others about you?

Obviously, it has your:

• Contacts

• Photos

• Texts

• Emails

But did you know it might also contain:

• All the commands you’ve ever spoken into the phone

• A record of all your web searches

• A map of where you and your phone have been

Listen to this podcast from NPR to get a glimpse of what your cell phone reveals about you and your movements.

Did you already know your phone was collecting this information about your movements? Did this information encourage you to check, and perhaps change, your phone’s settings? And consider, this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to cell phones and privacy. In fact, your cell phone can tell so much about you that a 2014 Supreme Court decision ruled that the police can’t search the cell phone of someone who is arrested unless they have a warrant. As Adam Serwer writes,

"The decision will likely have long-lasting implications for digital privacy, far beyond the immediate concern surrounding how and when police can search a mobile device. Police are typically allowed to search an individual after an arrest, but [Chief Justice John] Roberts wrote that the amount of personal information contained on a cell phone made such a search different from the usual objects authorities might find when asking someone to empty their pockets." http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/supreme-court-cell-phone-privacy-searches

Protecting personal privacy in the digital age has widespread implications for identity – perceived, authentic, and otherwise. How many of us, though, really think about the “privacy policies” of a given company before we make an online purchase? Do we know what the privacy settings are on all of our social media sites, or on our phones? Do we understand enough about how a given tool “grabs” and then repurposes information, and what that all might mean about our relative privacy?

This topic is vast and deeply researched, both in traditional research journals, and on the Web. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse is a comprehensive site on which you will find many specific areas of interest with response to online privacy. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse identifies as “A California nonprofit corporation with 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Our mission is to engage, educate and empower individuals to protect their privacy. We identify trends and communicate our findings to advocates, policymakers, industry, media and consumers.”

A quick glance through this site raises many issues attached to the overall topic of Internet privacy. For example, what happens when survivors of domestic abuse wish to erase social media presence so as to remain safe? Make your way to the guide on Social Networking Privacy: How to Be Safe, Secure, and Social. Read the information provided, and then complete the following activity.

Choose one social media you commonly use (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc). Read the privacy policy for this site, and then examine your own privacy settings on this site.

For example, here is a quick guide on Facebook settings:

Next, read how to understand a privacy policy. Return to the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse guide and go to Step 8 “Reading a Privacy Policy.” Notice, for example, that the most important parts of a privacy policy often appear towards the end – when most of us have stopped reading – if we even bothered to start.

Now return to your own social media site of choice. Write a short analysis of your privacy settings, and the implications for those settings. What was the most compelling argument from the readings that led you to make a change? If you made no change, describe why you made this decision.