• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Shift Collaborative

Shift Collaborative

Working with those birds who take risky steps.

  • Services
    • Branding and Design Services
    • Web Design and Development Services
    • Marketing and Communications Services
    • Media Relations Services
    • Workshops and Talks
  • Work
  • About
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Openings
    • Get the Shift Newsletter
Home | General

Blog

“Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity” by danah boyd

by Cynthia Closkey, March 18, 2010

For an excellent overview of the concepts and issues surrounding online privacy and publicity, check out danah boyd’s keynote speech from SXSWi for 2010.

Just because a large percentage of people engage in public does not mean that they don’t care about privacy. Pew found that 85% of adults want to control who has access to their personal information. You can read numbers in any which direction, but it’s dangerous to assume that people who share PII don’t care about privacy or people who make their data public don’t care about privacy. Doing so erases the context in which people are operating and the expectations that they have.

Wanting privacy is not about needing something to hide. It’s about wanting to maintain control. Often, privacy isn’t about hiding; it’s about creating space to open up. If you remember that privacy is about maintaining a sense of control, you can understand why Privacy is Not Dead. There are good reasons to engage in public; there always have been. But wanting to be in public doesn’t mean wanting to lose control.

Of particular note, see her analyses of why the launch of Google Buzz generated so much strong backlash, why people were uncomfortable when Facebook changed its privacy features in December 2009, and what’s interesting about ChatRoulette.

Photo credit: “Fingerprints” by kevindooley on Flickr

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Suzanne Farabaugh says

    May 4, 2010 at 12:39 pm

    Dana-
    saw your last name Boyd and that you were in Foxburg. ANy chance you were related to Margaret Boyd Keating? She married my gr grandfather John “jack” Keating?—-Suzanne p.s. love Foxburg. It is so quaint and charming. I have been to the Foxburg Inn!

  2. Cynthia Closkey says

    May 4, 2010 at 4:08 pm

    Suzanne,

    Sorry if the post was confusing. I was linking to and recommending a post/presentation by danah boyd, who is a web researcher. Her bio says she was born in Altoona, so maybe she’s related to the family you know: http://www.danah.org/aboutme.html.

    I love Foxburg too. It’s a real treasure for our area.


Join Our Newsletter

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Footer

Shift Collaborative
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Contact

412.548.1842
info@shiftcollaborative.com

Visit

128 N. Highland Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15206

Follow

Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
LinkedIn

© 2022 Shift Collaborative. All Rights Reserved.