Privacy Policies

Dear Mr. Boyd,

            I think that your article brings up a great point and raises the issue of who truly holds the power when it comes to privacy online. I think that it’s almost equal between the viewed and the person who is watching. You make a great example of Carmen and Shamika in the article. Both knew what they were posting on their Facebooks was being watched and they moderated it because of that. What they truly wanted to say was not posted, which means that the one watching wins in that situation. However, having that ability to control what they post, when they post it, who posts on their Facebook and if anyone can see that, all of those things are the power of the one being viewed. There seems to be more control on the plate of Carmen and Shamika then those watching them. I understand that the issue is that they have to watch what they post because of others, but I think that is like real life. People tend to speak more freely in online forums than they will ever do in person. By taking that time to think through their posts, they are acting realistically in the situations based on what reactions they perceive others will have. As you said, in Shamika case she is trying to make access to her Facebook harder and in that she is training to maintain control of her situation, not invisibility. While I would never go to that far of an extreme, I do respect her choices and I understand them completely. At times I want to make my entire Facebook account private except for a handful of my friends, because I do not want all of my 400+ friends on Facebook knowing my business. That is my own fault though, because I can easily delete all of the people I don’t want seeing what I post, but I am too lazy to go through and do that.

            You introduce the term social steganography in the case of Carmen, who took a much different approach in her Facebook posts. I see a lot of this online, people post statuses with a hidden subtext that you will only get if you know them. When they are upset, rather than posting a sad song or an angry status, they will choose a certain artist to pos lyrics from and you just know. There are other things as well, people will change their profile pictures when they are upset with a friend or detag themselves in pictures with those people, they are things you wouldn’t notice if you weren’t reading into them. I agree with that in order to have agency, people must understand where they fit into in the relationships they hold and by having that understanding, they can achieve the privacy that they are looking for.

Ana Luisa Suarez