This post continues an arc on online privacy whcih I started in Online Privacy, Part 1. I'm going to be posting about the history of privacy, privacy in commerce, and what privacy means to the individual. What I'll be posting here is from my next book, Reading Virtual Minds, Chapter 7, "Experience Versus Expectation":To be unknown means to not have any community, no social connections, and ultimately, to have no identity. Identities are formed within a social context, and to be anonymous (or "unknown") means to present an identity which is unknown...within the current social context. Only amnesiacs are unknown to themselves. Individuals wishing to remain anonymous and therefore unknown to others are doing so for a reason and within their current social context. For example, on the first day of teaching a new class, I'll often be the third or fourth person entering the room, smiling and nodding as I enter the room and take a seat in the back, as if I were a student. This gives me a chance to engage the students as their peer, to learn their goals and motivations, and to plan and adjust the course accordingly.
So anonymity allows an individual to create a new social context in which they can define or assign a role to themselves which is independent of other roles other social contexts have assigned to them. It allows them to reveal only the information they wish to reveal in the current social setting. In other words, it allows them to keep certain things private and make other things public.
Now let's bring this back to people browsing a website, picking up a brochure, walking through a showroom or strolling a convention floor. Here anonymity morphs into "I see you, you see me, and you'll forget me as soon as I turn away." (to be continued...)
(text and images copyright Joseph Carrabis and NextStage Evolution 2006-2007)
» Online Privacy, Part 7 - Online Identity from BizMediaScience
Online Privacy, Online Identity and Online Trust [Read More]
Tracked on: December 6, 2006 12:30 PM | Permalink to Trackback