Teens too open online: privacy watchdog (CBC)

[Drew Wilson]

Canadians need to take more responsibility for internet privacy in an age where increasing openness is being exploited by online fraudsters, according to Canada's privacy commissioner.

"Many young people are choosing to open their lives in ways their parents would have thought impossible and their grandparents unthinkable," Jennifer Stoddart notes in her annual report to Parliament, which was tabled Tuesday.

"Their lives play out on a public stage of their own design as they strive for visibility, connectedness and knowledge," she wrote.

The commissioner referred to several studies that examined how young people interact with the web.

Stoddard's report quoted noted sociologist and researcher Danah Boyd, who has observed that "most teens are engaging with social media without any deep understanding of the underlying dynamics or structure."

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For me, this is pretty obvious stuff. It shocks me how oblivious some people are to the consequences of some of the personal information they post.

Someone argued once to me that this privacy stuff is overblown and "they" can watch all they want, it's not like "I" care. Yeah, I'm sure you'd say that right up to the point of having your Identity stolen too. Just because you don't do anything wrong doesn't mean someone else wouldn't do anything wrong either.

[mountain_rage]

Someone idiots out there think that if you send someone your picture and delete it from your computer that it also deletes it from theirs... Scary I know.