Private life and digital traces

Today we want to maintain our privacy in the best way. But we forget to take our precautions when surfing the internet and leave behind several digital traces, enough traces to reveal who we are. What causes this carelessness?

I start my day by waking up, put on the coffee, making me breakfast before I sit down with my computer. I log on the internet, first I check my mail, and then I check my profile on facebook to see if any of my friends have digested their breakfast and coffee. But most of all I’m curious if there is any juicy gossip. While I’m logged on facebook, I open a new banner and write in my banks website so that I can pay my bills. Meanwhile a tempting offer pops up on a commercial on one of the news webs I visit. So I decide to do some shopping on the web by using my credit card while I enjoying my morning coffee. Then I remember that I have forgotten to response on the e-mail I received last night, so I open my e-mail to take care of it. It’s only been half an hour, but already I have left behind several of digital traces. Enough traces to disclose who I am, my type of personality and interests. And I’m a not worried, because I ain’t giving the consequences over leaving digital traces a thought.

According to the advice of technology the amount of digital traces has increased because we communicate more and more over the web. An example is when I communicate via the web, and then our traces will be registrated and saved. This means that we can find out when the conversation took place and also the content of the conservation. Erichsen write that cookies, these so called “information pods”, are necessary though they contains a lot of information about you and what you do on the internet, example your surf habits.

My Ip-address will be registrated everywhere I go on the net. Hasselgård compare watching the Ip-address with watching telephone calls, this contains watching your intimate confidences. Though the IP-address is anonymous and can only be accessible for the police with a approval from a tribunal, it’s possible to find out more about the address according to Erichsen. When you send an e-mail, you’ve already disclosed your IP-address. The address can be disclosed either caused by bad safety on your computer or that the computer is provoked to give away its IP-address when you go online with the computer. If you have the IP-address, you can find out where is located. And according to Erichsen there are programs that can scan any computer that are online with an IP-address and then find out a lot about a person.

The picture is taken from www.toolpool.com.
That means, with a little detective job it’s possible to find out a lot about a person just by sending an e-mail. For me it seems that the IP-addresses are no longer anonymous. Also the digital traces we leave behind are now according to Hafskjold more familiar and potential disclosing than before and they can be used by following your movement. Important personal information is therefore approachable for un-concerned. As I mentioned in the prelude, I had surfed on the web just half an hour and already leaving several digital traces. If it’s so easy to find out about a person’s personal life only with digital traces we leave behind, why aren’t we more careful when we surf and communicate on the web?

Scott McNeil from Sun Microsystems stated i 99' that we have zero privacy, anyway get over it. This means that we have given up taking our precautions when surfing the Web because we know we cannot control our private information which is out there?
The Norwegian supervision of data’s has implanted a survey on people’s attitude to digital traces. The survey shows that people are less worried by abuse over their personal information that they leave surfing on the web. The reason that I don’t worry about the traces I leave behind, due to my ignorance. And that’s the reason why we don’t worry, our knowledge about digital traces are minimal. According to the technology advice, people don’t know the consequences this has for they own private information.

If I move my daily chores from the web to the “real” life. Example if I go to the bank and pay my bills, I go to the store and do my shopping, then I go to the café for some chatting with my friends. When I go to the bank to pay my bills, I keep my account and my personal code to the account to myself. When I pay for my shopping, I keep my wallet to myself and when I chat with my friends the conversation is just between me and my friends, no other.

My point is that when it comes to laws and rules regarding personal information we have strong social and ethical norms, but not when it comes to the way we act on the web. We keep our information about ourselves close to our chest and we don’t sneak in other people’s personal information. In Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, it says: Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence.
It seems that this rule has not received proper footing when it comes to the life we live on the internet. According to Bing, the norms and rules when it comes to digital traces don’t exist because this is new for us. It has been a explosive technologic development, and the digital traces are useful. But since we don’t have developed attitudes to these traces, we don’t have ethical norms on this field. We cross borders because we easily have access on personal information. Weather this due to ignorance to the digital traces, curiosity or just simple cheekiness I think we can avoid thus if we developed ethical norms when it comes to the digital traces.

China has chosen to ban facebook and twitter because of the ethical rights citizens have when it comes to private information.Should we go to such drastic measures in order to preserve privacy? It is up to each individual to decide.

This video about Andy made me realize that there is endless information about me in the digital dossier, I can say that I have a private life? See it if you think you have a private life.



This video from World Business ask the question "Is privacy a thing of the past?". The video present facts about our habits on the web, and also our privacy there.We get views from Privacy experts, researchers and other professionals in the field.