A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a post explaining my decision to take a lot of personal information off my facebook profile following a number of informal chats I’d had with various people about privacy, identity theft and the mining of my data for commercial gain.
One of the responses to that post came from Colin McKay, Director of Communications at the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Canada. He said:
"We’re in a period of real transition, where the youngest generation is
blissfully comfortable exchanging information for services without
really evaluating the real value – or cost – of the transaction."
To illustrate the point, the Canadian Privacy Commissioner’s office has created the following video which they’ve made available on YouTube:
There’s one line in the video that I find particularly chilling:
"every time you add information about yourself, it’s like filling in a survey… all without your knowledge, consent, or having ever been asked…"