Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
According to Kirkpatrick (
2010
, p. 199), Zuckerburg (CEO of Facebook) said
“Having two identities for yourself is an example of [a] lack of integrity.” However,
is it possible for people to behave as a social being without resorting to different
personas depending on the situation, even if it is on SNS? Also, can we effectively
take complete responsibility to control our personal information and to construct
the digital identity that we would want? The digital identity of SNS users seems to
be problematic for the users themselves to control. In the following sections, the
uncertainty of controlling personal information and digital identity is discussed.
13.3 Out of Complete Control
13.3.1 Disclosure of Information by others
As already noted, almost all SNS attempt to provide privacy options to their users so
they are able to manage their information privacy while trying to balance this with a
users' real name policy. However, even if SNS users can choose their privacy settings
and accept the self responsibility principle, he/she cannot have complete control over
the flow of personal information concerning him or her and they cannot control
events that may shape their digital identity. One of the reasons is that information
related to one user could be posted not only by one's self, but also by others.
Let's assume that an individual (hereafter referred to as, “A”) posts a blog article
which describes a humorous episode at a party, and then uploads pictures of party
participants with tagged information including their names. Even if the blog is only
accessible for exclusive members, that is, friends who are linked, the uploaded
picture is not controlled by the participants of the party. If one of the participants
(hereafter referred to as, “B”) had not wanted these pictures to be posted by A,
it would be likely that the picture files could not be completely eradicated, perhaps
due to copies having been made despite B having asked A to delete the files. As a
consequence, it may become a serious relationship problem between A and B. In
reality, cases just like this have happened many times on SNS websites.
6
There is a
possibility that certain information concerning one user is revealed by other users in
a way that is not desirable from the first user's perspective. This type of situation
may put a burden of self-responsibility on individual users. Moreover, there is an
asymmetric level of impact and responsibility between users, one of which uses
their real name and one who does not. For example, when one user using a handle
name posts a compromising message concerning another user who uses their real
name on the SNS website, it could be considered that there is a much greater impact
on the user using their real name.
6
See, Trend micro survey (
http://jp.trendmicro.com/jp/about/news/pr/article/20120410035738.
html
)
, and New York Times (Spring Break Gets Tamer as World Watches Online,
www.nytimes.
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