When it comes to online privacy, isn’t it about time we started acknowledging that phrase is an oxymoron? The Internet is called the World Wide Web for a reason: it links people across the globe together. It’s foolish to assume that anything you want to stay private can remain so once posted online. Once you send a byte of information out into cyberspace, you might as well have chalked it out on the sidewalk in front of the Rideau Centre, or screamed it from the Peace Tower.
In short, the Internet is public space. Don’t be fooled by privacy settings. Even if you limit who can see your profile, or think that you’ve deleted a “frenemy” from your Facebook friends list, the potential still exists for someone to capture and save what you posted online for later with a screenshot, or view your private information through someone else’s account.
Ultimately, people need to take responsibility for what they post online. It’s not Facebook’s fault if a prospective boss finds those pictures of you doing a keg stand and you lose a potential job; or if your boyfriend finds that picture of
you from high school, when you had braces and a mullet, even though you untagged it.
Good on the Privacy Commissioner for taking emerging online security threats seriously, but really, each individual Canadian needs to stop and think about what it means to click send, post or publish. If something you post online falls into the wrong hands, you have only yourself to blame