The XX Factor: What women really think.

Since When Does My Generation Care About Privacy?

Bonnie, your take on the Facebook information uproar is interesting, though I wonder if you're overlooking a key part of the issue: that most Facebook users don't actually care about privacy. As a longtime Facebook user (I joined in 2005, back when membership was still limited to college students), I have to say that I don't think privacy was ever a big concern for the first (or second, or third) wave of Facebook users. During a lecture I attended given by Harvey Rishikof, the national security expert suggested that my generation is the first group of Americans that puts almost no value on our privacy, and I tend to believe it. 

Starting with the ancient AOL member profile and extending now into the detailed personal information sections on sites like Facebook and MySpace, the concept of publicizing private information on the Web has always seemed natural for the cybergeneration. We see that with personal blogs, too: People will put all kinds of detailed information about themselves and their lives on the Internet without much thought for the safety or security of doing so. There has been controversy about Facebook's privacy standards before, and it never seemed to cause this much of a stir. Even the rumblings in early February about Zuckerberg's intent to sell off personal information on the site as the biggest microtargeting tool ever didn't garner as much attention as the Consumerist article (which was met with enough protest to make Zuckerberg change his mind).

So why are Facebook users suddenly worried about the security of their information? In part, I think it's because Facebook isn't just for co-eds anymore; people of all ages are jumping on social networks now, and with them come their concerns about free and open information-sharing. But I also think the issue is not one of privacy but of control. While my generation may not mind broadcasting intimate details and photos, we've always felt we had complete control over the private information we make public. The sudden realization that we might not have the power to remove all traces of ourselves from our electronic playground is what is giving users the heebie-jeebies. It's that lack of power, not privacy, that's making these information exhibitionists suddenly try to cover up.