On Friday I was a guest on ABC Radio National’s Life Matters discussing online reputation. This has close ties with the privacy concerns that are getting more and more attention in the media these days. There seems to be a lot of concern and a growing realisation that once the genie is out of the bottle it’s hard to put him back in. It was an interesting discussion, though I wonder if I’m becoming a harbinger of doom on these matters.

You can catch the show here or listen below.

[audio:http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2010/11/lms_20101112_0905.mp3|loop=no]

I did another appearance on the 7PM Project on Wednesday, talking about Facebook vandals (/b/tards, basically) defacing tribute pages. It’s a difficult subject in some ways, as we must balance the outrage and no doubt genuine anguish caused by such actions against the practicalities of any response and its implications for legitimate anonymous free speech. I wrote something on the subject earlier in the year when a similar incident occurred. That can be a hard line to sell when a grieving parent is involved.

Recently I’ve spent a good deal of my time thinking, reading and talking about online privacy. As Facebook and the rest of the social media set become more of a fixture in our lives, the public’s concern about privacy issues have become increasingly pronounced. Every Facebook incident seems to get widespread media coverage.

We’ve also been hearing a lot recently from the government about the amazing proliferation of services that will result from the National Broadband Network. Already, new sites and services pop up every day and have the potential to change lifestyles. There’s a cost, though, to shifting more of our work and social lives online, and this is our privacy.

The last year has seen an upsurge in news about threats to our privacy. Facebook’s decision to change their privacy settings caused an uproar when it was revealed users would be forced – some say, even tricked – into making more information public. More recently, Google received a rap over the knuckles for inadvertently compiling a database of information sniffed from open wireless connections as their street view cars prowled the neighbourhood. Scarier still, it has been revealed that the Attorney-General’s department are pushing for a scheme that would require all Australian phone and internet companies to keep records of your communications – phone, SMS, even email and web – in case it might be needed in a criminal investigation.

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