Digital ID Coach

Copy HTML:

If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

friends/family, future, history, records, tools David Glazer, Facebook, Google, Jim Adler, Kara Swisher, Kevin Marks, Online social networking, pii2011, Roger McNamee, Social information processing, social media, Social Media Ventures Inc, Technology/Internet, Union Square Ventures

Real Names

August 4th, 2011

No comments

representation of choices: color (The Commons) vs black and white (Business) Danah Boyd is an insightful researcher. She just wrote a post called “Real Names” Policies Are an Abuse of Power in which she takes Google to task for their changing policies and rather abrupt practice of kicking people off of Google Plus. I agree that being arbitrary is an abuse of power when it affects people so strongly (disabling an account removes the use of all services, not just Google Plus). However, there are two kinds of power: shared, and proprietary.

Google, along with Facebook, Twitter, and in fact nearly all Internet-based services (Amazon, eBay, your Internet service provider, etc.), are proprietary. These services are run by companies that:

are private or beholden to shareholders (their “business model”),
have one-sided Terms of Service and Policy documents that users are required to agree to, and
are based on the selective delivery of their user base to their customers (usually advertisers).

A striking characteristic of these businesses is that they have a practice of reducing things to black and white. Our chosen (registered) name “is” or “is not” really us. See Doc’s post A Sense of Bewronging for more thought on this. In a simplified (business) sense, it is an abuse of social power to declare that many of us are not who we say we are, even if we’re known to many others by our chosen registered name.

Contrast this with a shared power model, like a commons, or services that are implemented according to open standards. The underlying Internet protocols (the apache web server, sendmail, TCP/IP, etc.) are not owned by anyone, everybody can use them, and anybody can improve them. These resources are shared—no terms of service is required to use the Internet or email with any device you choose, with any compatible software, from any location that has access. “Commons” is where you can be who you are, no matter what name you go by.

Coaching moment: This may be a non-issue for some. I have friends that use their name to create a “brand” for themselves—so people will recognize them everywhere, and know what they’re about. However, that’s not an option for people in sensitive situations. Think of it this way: Everyone has a moment when they choose not to disclose some bit of information to the world. Sometimes it’s a name. That’s not a bad thing, and it should be a choice.

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Copy HTML:

If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

friends/family, records apache web server, Boyd, Communication, Danah Boyd, Doc Searls, Google, Identity, Internet, Internet protocols, Internet service, Internet-based services, ISP, online identity, Online social networking, Proprietary software, researcher, Sendmail, Social Issues, social media, social media services, Technology/Internet, Twitter, underlying Internet protocols, web 2.0, web server, World Wide Web

Open Data Partnership

March 12th, 2011

1 comment

When the government threatened to regulate an industry that has for some time been playing fast and loose with people’s personal data, the industry proposed to open their databases–at least a little. The Open Data Partnership is claimed to be a “market-wide collaboration that allows consumers to gain more control over the information that companies have collected about their interests in one easy-to-use portal.”

SmartPlanet quoted Mike Zaneis, Senior Vice President and General Counsel for the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), who explained:

Better Advertising’s Open Data Partnership is exactly the kind of initiative that will enable us to remain self-regulated as an industry. The more transparency we can provide consumers that enables them to retain control over their own data, the more trusted our ecosystem becomes – to the benefit of everyone.

Interestingly, many of the big data tracking companies have already signed on. (Hubspot, which just received an infusion of $32M from Google and Salesforce, are all missing from the list.)

With predictions for a sharp increase in analytics and data mining in 2011, the window offered by the Open Data Partnership is an interesting third option to “Do Not Track” or laissez-faire. It gives people better understanding and control over what they’re sharing and why. That said, it’s still about advertising (in which people are the product, not the customers).

Coaching moment: This is an interesting situation. If you could know more about yourself by looking at the data being collected, would you? Once you saw this information, would you be inclined to help correct it? If not, why?

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Copy HTML:

If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

history, records advertising, Better Advertising’s Open Data Partnership, business, Business/Finance, Data mining, Funding, Google, Google Inc., HubSpot, HubSpot Inc., Interactive Advertising Bureau, Internet marketing, Laissez-faire, marketing, Mike Zaneis, Open Data Partnership, Political spectrum, surveillance, Technology/Internet, tracking, USD, Vice President and General Counsel, Web analytics

What They Know

June 4th, 2010

No comments

The information sharing industry is pretty opaque to most people. We have no idea what “they” know about us. Moreover, it can be infuriating when certain companies make assumptions about us that are clearly erroneous. It can be absolutely unnerving when total strangers strike a little too close to the bone.

It’s instructive to find out what they know! Several years ago (2006), my friends at Privacy Rights Clearinghouse wrote a post called For the New Year, Resolve to Check Yourself Out that will help you do this. Their list of resources will help you understand who you are from the perspectives of your:

Credit history
Medical Information
Bank account history
Insurance claims
Public records
Search engines

I’d add one point to their last bullet. If you have an account on Google, you can now go into your Google Account Settings (look for the link in the upper right corner to Settings). Under Personal Settings, look for Dashboard: View Data Stored with this Account. It’s a view of what Google knows about you.

Coaching moment: It can be both overwhelming and empowering to know this much about your world. Fortunately, the overwhelming feeling can be countered by putting the story together and taking control of the problems. You’re creating a story, a narrative of who you are. Fix your problems if you can. Imagine a world in which you controlled your own information and others came to you for it. That world might be highly customizable in ways that were unique to you. What would that look and feel like?

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Copy HTML:

If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.

future, history, records Coaching, commerce, Computing, Dashboard, Google, Google Account, Google Inc., Human Interest, Identity, information industry, Internet search engines, Life coaching, New Year's Day, personal control, PII, privacy, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, self-determination, Technology/Internet, User interface, volunteered personal information, VPI, World Wide Web

On Data and Disclosure

December 15th, 2009

No comments

I like to think about ways to customize my world, and the digital world writ large, in ways that support and help us explore our unique selves. It is in our very diversity that individual strengths can play out to become our personal best, to help each other grow, and create fertile new worlds.

However, under the guise of “increased security,” we are increasingly surrounded by tools and technologies that minimize and standardize us, including video surveillance and data storage and analysis. About that last link to Google, CEO Eric Schmidt recently said “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”

This indiscriminate personal data hoarding is both an individual and a societal problem. Schmidt’s argument that we shouldn’t have anything to hide is specious (not to mention a double standard: it doesn’t apply to Schmidt). In a 2007 paper called ‘I’ve Got Nothing to Hide’ and Other Misunderstandings of Privacy, George Washington University Law School’s Daniel J. Solove convincingly critiques that argument. Indeed we have many things to hide, like our passwords and credit card numbers, certain personal habits and preferences, things that contribute to human dignity and respect. As noted security expert Bruce Schneier writes in his essay The Eternal Value of Privacy, “Too many wrongly characterize the debate as “security versus privacy.” The real choice is liberty versus control.”

Ironically, Gary Wolf and Kevin Kelly host a blog called The Quantified Self where they report about people exploring ways to keep track of themselves. It’s a significant difference between curiosity, personal need, and voluntary disclosure that’s driving data sets, and corporate ventures like Facebook (nod to jerking you around again with recent privacy policy changes), Google (Schneier’s response to Schmidt’s quote above), and damned near every corporate site you make an account with and that tracks your every move these days.

I’m looking for examples of sites that encourage liberty and demonstrate some respect for its users/clients. I will be reporting on what I find. If you have suggestions, I welcome them.

Coaching moment: Here’s a little thought exercise. Think about a typical day in your life.

What kind of things do you do in private? These might be taking a shower, brushing your teeth, thinking about the day. Some things might be really private as in just you by yourself, and other things may be private in some context, like thinking about your day out loud with your spouse or partner. Once you get a good list, which of those things would make you uncomfortable if they were made public in some way?

Now think of the kind of things you do in public, like driving to work or the store, walking around, having a conversation over lunch. Think about stories that might be told about you from the perspective of not knowing what you were really doing. You might take clues from signs that you walk by, or maybe other people (posture, groupings, facial expressions). Can you think of any stories that are not only wrong but might hurt you?

Finally, think about your online tools. Have you actually looked at the Terms of Service or Privacy Policies that you’re agreeing to? If you knew they were disrespectful to you or even abusive of your personal self and liberty, would you stop using them? Since the answer is “probably not,” what would you suggest these companies change?

Close Bookmark and Share This Page

Copy HTML:

If you like this then please subscribe to the RSS Feed.