Do not go through the minefield blindfolded

The latest huge controversy in which the Internet social networking platform Facebook has landed itself over the privacy of its users, is merely the tip of the iceberg. While legal frameworks throughout the world continue to fail in dealing adequately with the issue, the onus remains on the shoulders of individual users, mostly technically poorly equipped for the task, to guard over their own privacy. Caution and educating oneself should be the main guiding principles.

In a Fact Sheet published on its website, the non-governmental organisation  Privacy Rights Clearinghouse writes that the absorption of the Internet into our society has been extraordinary and touches every part of our life. “A few websites have virtually replaced some things, like the encyclopedia and the phone book.

“But with acceptance comes a decrease in skepticism. You may assume that the same laws or societal rules that protect your privacy in the physical world apply to the digital world as well. But the Internet remains largely unregulated and the policies governing it underdeveloped. Laws concerning your privacy on the Internet are still being developed.”

South Africa is one of the very few countries in the world where the right to privacy is explicitly protected in its constitution. Although it occurs in only very broad terms, clause 14 of Chapter two (Bill of Rights) does state, among others: “Everyone has the right to privacy, which includes the right not to have... the privacy of their communications infringed.”

It remains for ordinary legislation and judgments in courts of law to flesh it out, create definition, interpretation and define acceptable reasons for suspension or ignoring of the basic rule.

Even if South African and other jurisdictions should put comprehensive legislation and rules in place to protect Internet privacy, the problem of the borderless and seamless connectivity nature of the Web would make it extremely difficult to enforce.

The extent to which the world is battling to come to grips with the problem of dealing with the Internet - which largely operates outside the control of normal legal frameworks - is illustrated by the number of court cases and legal actions in progress in a wide number of countries. For instance, class actions in the United States against Google for allegedly having “purposefully created technology to gather, analyze and use data sent by users over their wireless networks to a number of European Union member countries banning Google’s street view cars over privacy concerns".

For the ordinary man in the street and businesses, the bottom line is that they are for now mostly exposed to what IT service providers, big and small, regard as appropriate or ethical.

Fact is, from the moment you sign up for an e-mail address, you start sharing information about yourself with the world. Facebook landed in controversy because it intends selling on 'personalised' profiles of its users to third parties, which again can use that information for 'targeted' marketing.

But the privacy issue starts at a much more mundane level. The moment you send off an e-mail message to someone, you have no control over whom it gets forwarded to, along with your e-mail address.

A report commissioned by Microsoft and released in January 2010 clearly illustrates the extent to which Internet users in general are ignorant of the impact their travels in cyberspace may have. The research found that only 15% of consumers thought that what they posted online had any effect on their job prospects. At the same time, 75% of recruiters surveyed reported formal policies that required online research of applicants.

Those of us who are saving money when telephoning family and friends abroad by using Skype are familier with the sort of  messages posted to us on this application, which reads something like the following: “Find New FRIENDS and REAL SEX PARTNERS Online RIGHT NOW! Search millions of member profiles and find your perfect match! Create you profile absolutely FREE - http://www...”

Before you allow curiosity to get the better of you, you should remember what happened to the proverbial cat and to some people who were caught in the Craigslist Experiment. In September 2006, Jason Fortuny of Seattle posed as a woman and posted an ad to Craigslist Seattle, seeking a casual sexual encounter with men in that area. Days later, he posted on the wiki website Encyclopedia Damatica all the responses he received – complete with photographs and personal contact details, and describing his action as the Craigslist Experiment and encouraging others to further identify the respondents.

While they have not done anything illegal, at least two of the men who did respond to his ad lost their job and only one had the guts to face the ensuing publicity and instituted an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Fortuny.

It is a fact, however, that the workings of the Internet can be frightfully and overwhelmingly complex for most of its users. Unless you fully understand the meaning and workings of terms such as discussion lists, Cookies, flash cookies, Instant Messaging, browsers, search engines, blogs, web bugs, phising, cloud computing and many more, you are walking through a minefield blindfolded.

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse’s Fact Sheet 18: Privacy and the Internet; Traveling in Cyberspace Safely should be compulsory reading to everyone who owns an e-mail address or ever visits a website. It can be found at http://www.privacyrignts.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm