[275] in Privacy_Forum
[ PRIVACY Forum ] "Young People Don't Care About Privacy"
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (privacy@vortex.com)
Mon Sep 24 13:16:29 2007
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Date: Mon, 24 Sep 2007 09:39:58 -0700
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"Young People Don't Care About Privacy"
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000295.html
Greetings. As reported in the New York Times, a firm called "Pudding
Media" in San Jose is now providing an Internet phone service that
offers free phone calls in exchange for enduring computer ads based
on the content of your calls
( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24adcol.html ).
That's right, they listen in and automatically pick out key
words of interest, then target the caller (and they hope eventually,
the callee) with advertising.
The founders, both of whom have worked for Israeli intelligence (as
usual, you just can't make this stuff up) brush aside privacy
concerns. First, they claim what they're doing is just the same as
what Google does with Gmail. That's a simple assertion about a
complex issue, and I won't attempt to dissect it right now, except
to suggest that there are significant differences between text and
voice. (I say this with the understanding that rumors continue to
fly about a possible Google ad-supported cellphone service, which
might conceivably be similar to the system being described above --
but we'll cross that bridge if and when we ever come to it).
But Pudding's other claim is more interesting. They feel that since
the service is targeted at young people, and since the firm believes
that this demographic is less concerned with maintaining privacy
than older people, the service will do just fine.
Coincidentally, the Times has another story running about the
increasing use of "snipes" on television, the intrusive animations
and promotions running on the screen blocking out the actual
programming
( http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/business/media/24clutter.html ).
The rationale? The broadcast industry wants to cater to what they
view as the short attention span of young persons.
Meanwhile, we have operations like Facebook exposing and exploiting
the personal data of their mostly youngish users, and other services
aggregating personal information from social networking sites and
potentially creating even more privacy problems.
Privacy issues affect everyone of every age. But if I were a "young
person" today, I'd feel like I was being treated as a sucker when it
comes to expectations of a laissez-faire attitude regarding my
personal privacy.
The interesting question is, are the assumptions of people like the
Pudding Media folks correct? Do young people really not care about
their privacy? And if that's true, what does this mean for the
future, when Pudding's current targets are older and have a lot more
personal "baggage" to be concerned about?
Or, is Pudding Media simply full of tapioca?
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com or lauren@pfir.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
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