Facebook: privacy, police and reputation

A recent article in a Milwaukee newspaper on local police using Facebook and My Space in criminal investigations raises questions for me about privacy and reputation - an important concept in social networks and online transactions, such as on eBay. The article cites research from Carnegie Mellon that found people opening Facebook accounts frequently failed to appreciate how public their postings were and often did not invoke the privacy options Facebook provides.

I'm also taking a class at Carnegie Mellon on the social web, and in a recent session, we talked about Facebook, but not too much about privacy. (That topic comes later in the course.) Of course, many students have Facebook accounts, but I wonder how many have restricted access to their profiles? I also have a Facebook profile but have not invoked any of the privacy options -- not yet anyway. I now think I should -- not because I'm posting about off-color or illegal activities, but because it just seems prudent. If I would not open my calendar to the world, nor my journal or diary (even though I may share some entries with some friends or family), why should I open my Facebook profile?

Also, choosing levels of privacy seems to me to be analogous to concepts of safe computing and safe sex; also to Frost's fences make good neighbors idea. I wonder if, in the not-too-distant future, unrestricted profiles may be seen as a sign of naivete, of foolishness, immaturity, and a certain invitation to be duped or taken advantage of (perhaps also as a phishing lure to the unsuspecting), with the reverse to be concluded of those who invoke their privacy -- that is, privacy practitioners are mature, smart and have good judgment; in short, they are trustworthy.

As I think more about this, is it reasonable to conclude that good reputation would be more likely to accrue to a more secure, more private profile, with some measurable benefits of that good reputation (more attractive to be associated with, engage in business transactions), than to a less private, more open profile? And, is this new way of thinking about social personas a counterintuitive conclusion to what we, in a pre-online world might have thought characterized an honest, trustworthy person? In other words, is the ease anonymity in creating online profiles and searching social networks leading us to consider privacy the new integrity, when we once might have valued more highly the person whose life is an open book?

Geof Becker