So why is privacy important? To many of us it seems obvious, but it can be very difficult to articulate. Try. Right now. Explain to someone why privacy is important to you.
Or there are many of us who don’t think privacy is a big deal at all. “I’m not doing anything wrong, so why should I care?!?!?”
Then there is your buddy who live streams his entire life on TikTok, tells everyone his passwords, and gets naked at the drop of a hat. Privacy, maybe not a huge concern for him.
Whether you think privacy is important or not, it IS important to understand why privacy could/should be important to you and how the tools you use online collect and use your personal information. Only then will you be a more informed digital citizen and make conscious decisions about the personal information you share with the world.
Reasons you should care about your privacy
Information is Power: Think of all the things you’ve done online, places you’ve gone, photos/video you’ve taken on your phone. Could any of that be used, misused, or misrepresented to embarrass you? Or worse? This gives the keepers of that information a tremendous amount of power over you. Or to look at it another way…you gain tremendous power by keeping personal information to yourself.
Reputation Management: Something that you think is harmless and funny at one stage in your life may not be as funny and harmless when viewed years later by a potential employer or partner. The personal information that gets online is very hard to get rid of.
Easier to Make Mistakes in Private: Mistakes are crucial to personal growth and people tend to be more willing to make mistakes when it’s not on a grand scale. Things can get out of control very quickly online. Your group of 10 connections can turn into a viral moment with millions of viewers and severe consequences.
Easier to Explore Ideas in Private: Curiosity is key to personal growth as well and we need to be able to explore ideas without fear of judgment (whether we believe in them or not).
Strategies to Understand Why Privacy is Important to You
If you want to talk to your students or your kids about online privacy, it is important to have some idea of why it matters to you. Then you can explore this complicated issue together.
- Start by asking yourself or your kids the question “Why is privacy important?” and see what they come up with. This question may be met with a well-informed response, complete confusion, a shoulder shrug, or a request for a snack. You never know.
- Regardless of the response you get, you can start to explore this issue together by finding some reputable articles about online privacy. Find out what others are saying about why they value their privacy online and consider if that applies to you or not.
- Then take a look at the most popular apps and online sites you and your kids use. Dig into them to see if they collect, store, and/or sell your personal information. Are you comfortable with it all? If you’re fine now, can you think of a plausible scenario where you might not be fine with someone having access to that information in the future?
- Now do the same for your phone. What information does it collect about you? Does it record your location data? Payment/credit card/transaction data? Do your photos and videos live on your phone or in the cloud? Who has access to them?
Great! Now you have a better understanding of the tools you use and how they access, store, and potentially sell your personal information. Now think of the reasons why privacy is important we talked about in the previous section. Do the tools you use line up with your privacy values? Regardless of your answer, you are now a much more informed digital citizen.
In our next blog post, we’re going to look at some strategies to take control of your personal information online.
Shout Out To Kermode
Kermode is the most cutting-edge digital citizenship skill-building software on the planet. They help users evaluate online content and build critical thinking skills around everything they see and do online. This includes data security and privacy, with rich explorations in the user guides and projects. Find out more on their RESOURCES page.
