But I don't want you to know who I am!

[Not Afraid]

HEY! I wasn't even around!

[€uroMeinke]

I have mixed feelings about "privacy." Once upon a time people lived in small communities where everyone knew each other's business, why shouldn't we expect other people to "know" about us. But I may be confusing concepts of privacy with anonymity.

[alphabassettgrrl]

I know I would be considerably more reluctant to post on something like this board if my real name and address were available on it. Even if it was supposedly hidden, only for the board owner's records, it makes me nervous.

You're right, we used to be all in each other's business. Was that really a better way to live? I'm not sure. It had benefits (if you cut somebody off in traffic everybody knows about it vs anonymity in a big city) but it has decided downside as well. Maybe less of a downside if you fit the profile of everybody else in town, but for a weirdo like me??? No, I'll keep my privacy, keep my distance, thank you very much. I like to be able to choose who knows what. Especially considering how easily connections can be made in this age of the net. It's startling how much can be found out about someone. I have tried to keep my profile as low as possible, and succeeding for the most part. I have never found myself in a search engine, and I like it that way.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by alphabassettgrrl

You're right, we used to be all in each other's business. Was that really a better way to live? I'm not sure. It had benefits (if you cut somebody off in traffic everybody knows about it vs anonymity in a big city) but it has decided downside as well. Maybe less of a downside if you fit the profile of everybody else in town, but for a weirdo like me???

See I wonder about that - people conceal their differences in anonymity, and sometimes we are expected to do just that. The work place is sometimes that way - just act corporate, show no odd interests and nobody's feathers get ruffled.

But when we all know each other's quirks - you're somewhat forced to accept them - or realize they aren't all that wierd after all. It's the unknown that we are most afraid of and anonymity creates a lot of that.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

But when we all know each other's quirks - you're somewhat forced to accept them - or realize they aren't all that wierd after all. It's the unknown that we are most afraid of and anonymity creates a lot of that.

Yes, but there are two key differences between the work place/small town analogies and the situation that would be created by this proposed law.

1) In the former, there are some controls as to who's in and who's out. Not so much for an internet community. As we have seen, they can grow to staggering proportions rather quickly. Now, the easy rebuttal to that is that this law isn't putting your info out for all members to see, just the adminsitrators. But there you run smack into...

2) Lack of reciprocation. In the small town/work place situation, there's a bidirectionality. "You can know everything about me, I can know everything about you." Not so with this law. You'd be require to divulge info to the operators of whatever board, while they are under no obligation to return. Such one-sidedness makes it far easier for the less scrupulous operators to do less scrupulous things.

[€uroMeinke]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Yes, but there are two key differences between the work place/small town analogies and the situation that would be created by this proposed law.

I'll grant you that - but I do still wonder if technology enable us to have that small town relationship in a much larger community. Of course there are psychologicaal and physiological barriers at some point - but the technology seems to at least enable things moving in this direction.

The other thing about technology is I wonder over time whether or not privacy is even possible. After I saw the movie The End of Violence, I became hyper aware of all the surviellance cameras there are just about everywhere you go. It's kind of big brotherish but we already spend an awful lot of time on camera, add the GPS feature on cell phones - red light cameras, IP address logging etc. maybe we should focus less on protecting our privacy and more on protecting our rights to be ourselves in public.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by €uroMeinke

I'll grant you that - but I do still wonder if technology enable us to have that small town relationship in a much larger community. Of course there are psychologicaal and physiological barriers at some point - but the technology seems to at least enable things moving in this direction.

There has been research that seems to indicate that whether you live in a small community or a large metropolitan area, people tend to have close relationships with about the same number of people. It seems like we're more impersonal in big cities because you come across more people you don't know, but in the end, we all hit some maximum upper limit of social capaicty which is relatively stable (accounting for the expected statistical distribution of individual variations) from person to person. So while the internet may offer the advantage of widening the georgraphical net of who you know, it most likely just means that other acquaintances will fall off the table, or never get on the table to begin with.

[Mousey Girl]

This is one of the few places that I am comfortable enough to post my real name, and that of my family. I learned how precious privacy is when I had aquired a stalker from a chat room. After he took things offline to threaten me and Nickolas, even going so far as to call my house and tell David exacly what Nick wore to school that day and to tell him I was having an affair with him (because I refused to have an affair). I learned my lesson. If this law goes into effect this would be the only place I would remain a member.

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Mousey Girl

This is one of the few places that I am comfortable enough to post my real name, and that of my family. I learned how precious privacy is when I had aquired a stalker from a chat room. After he took things offline to threaten me and Nickolas, even going so far as to call my house and tell David exacly what Nick wore to school that day and to tell him I was having an affair with him (because I refused to have an affair). I learned my lesson. If this law goes into effect this would be the only place I would remain a member.

After the comment about the child I'd have agreed to meet him in person. In some dark secluded romantic spot, perhaps near a swamp or a particularly deep and murky lake.

[€uroMeinke]

I hear the number is somewhere between 200 and 250 - I've notice that that also seems to be the breaking point for online communities - factions are created, splits occure, or cyber neighborhoods of specialization are carved out. Happens in the work place too.

But still there has to be some impact of having access to the same information on strangers that you have with your intimates. I just hope as we move forward it becomes more comfortable or easier to just be who you are instead of having to conceal things for fear of judgemental idiots, stalkers, and critics.