Privacy? Not Any More

I was reading an article about a website called Riya.com. In essence, it allows people to upload photographs of themselves and others, names them, then basically creates a profile where people can search the internet for other pictures of themselves or these same people. What this means, of course, is people are allowing online software to recognize their faces, and those of people who might not necessarily be willing, so that they can be tracked anywhere on the internet.

It made me think back on some things that occurred over the last year. The first involved the former Miss New Jersey, who had some pictures in a Facebook private account that she only wanted to share with her friends. One of her so-called friends decided to copy the pictures, then printed them and sent them to pageant officials, basically trying to say she was violating a morals clause in the pageants rules. The pictures were fairly harmless, and she wasn't stripped, but she said she expected a certain level of privacy because her page was private, and was appalled that they got out to the general public in any case.

The second involves a conversation I became privy of that occurred within a private online site. Ryze.com allows paying members to create "networks", basically groups on any subject one might decide they want to moderate, or not moderate as the case may be. In this one particular network, nothing is off limits, including all sorts of speech, politically correct or not. Someone shared a conversation with me that they were a part of, wondering what I thought about it. My first thought was that I wasn't happy with it one bit; my second was that, when a conversation is between more than two people, there is no such thing as a private conversation anymore.

And I had a third thought, one that fits right in with what I've said for a very long time. In today's world, a person doesn't get to be one thing one minute and something else another minute. You can try being two very different people, but within those differences there's always the possibility that something out there is going to give you away, expose you for what you really are, and you'd better hope that when it comes out it's something you're ready to deal with.

In this particular conversation that was shared, some of the comments could be considered racist, coming from a conservative point of view that makes many of us believe many conservatives are really racist deep down. I try not to believe that, but, like many other things, people will say things that often bring you back to those types of thoughts, and that's what this particular conversation was like. Why do I support the ideal of being politically correct in one's speech? Because the wrong words will take everything away from a point you're trying to make, and that becomes the topic instead. Remember Richard Pryor saying that he was fine arguing with someone until they called him the "N" word, and then he had to deal with that because suddenly he wasn't just a man anymore, he was something else.

Still, there's this thing about privacy that seems to be disappearing more and more in our country. Our local news indicated last night that there will be parts of the city where cameras are going to be installed on street lights to catch people who drive through stop signs without stopping. Anyone who believes that will be the only use of these cameras is kidding themselves. Still, it's possible that may serve a global purpose that proves to be positive in some fashion at some point; who can say?

As it relates to business, whether you work for yourself or a large organization, what you do in public, or what you perceive as "off work time", may come back to haunt you in some fashion. How comfortable would you be banking with someone who you saw lose control at an after hours business function and get so drunk that he or she started hitting on every person of the opposite sex, or kept falling on the ground, or any number of behaviors? Wouldn't it always be in the back of your mind that they might exhibit some type of indiscreet behavior when they were at work?

Why am I talking about this? Because we all have to work in some capacity, whether we work for someone or have our own businesses. There are some things we do or have that are easily tracked. For $24.95, you can find things out about anyone on the internet, and with just a little bit of elbow grease, you can probably learn a lot more. Do you wonder why there are fewer avowed racists in the world today? Because it's easy to associate someone with an organization and put it on the internet, and you might as well kiss your career goodbye. Make a negative statement in some fashion and it might end up on the internet, or on someone's cell phone or portable camera, and in minutes it could be all around the world.

Is this good or bad? I'm not really sure; all I know is that it's the reality we all live with. And the law isn't on your side. By law, every email you read at work belongs to the company, even if it's personal email. Companies are allowed to track where you go and what you do on the internet if you do it at work. Companies are allowed to penalize you for personal behavior outside of work; just this weekend the front page story in our local newspaper was about a vendor who works football games at the local university being fired because of some negative comments he made about the work policies and criticisms of the football coach. He said it was freedom of speech; the university says it's detrimental behavior to the workplace. Who's right? It doesn't matter; he's out of work and doesn't have the money to sue, and the university will survive any negative publicity the story might generate, if any, because after all, we have bigger fish to fry the next day.

I say this often, and it holds extra true nowadays; if you're willing to exhibit bad behavior, you must be willing to deal with any repercussions that arise from it. Getting drunk on a Saturday night may not be excused by your employer anymore; neither might that puff of a cigarette you had that showed up in a random drug screening by your company. The concept of "1984" was only a few years late; Big Brother really is watching, and his younger siblings are ready to tell on you. It's not all about the workplace anymore; it's about personal accountability.

Just something more to think about; the world is watching.