AS the celebrity photo-hacking scandal has made clear, privacy isn't what it used to be.
WHETHER famous or seemingly anonymous, people from all walks of life put all sorts of things online or into cloud-based storage systems, from vital financial information to the occasional nude photo. Periodic cases of hacking fuel outrage, but there's no retreat from digital engagement or any imminent promise of guaranteed privacy.
"We have this abstract belief that privacy is important, but the way we behave online often runs counter to that," said Nicholas Carr, whose extensive writings about the internet include the 2010 book, The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains."I'd hope people would understand that anything you do online could be made public," Carr said. "Yet there's this illusion of security that tempers any nervousness ... It's hard to judge risks when presented with the opportunity to do something fun."The latest headlines involved nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities which were accessed via hacking and then posted online. Apple, which created the iCloud and other content-sharing systems, says individual accounts of some of the celebrities were targeted and hacked.Privacy experts said users of online and cloud technology need not be famous to be vulnerable."What we're seeing is people who innocently and in many ways naively are lulled into sharing information that they wouldn't share with their nextdoor neighbour," said Marlene Maheu, a San Diego-based psychologist whose TeleMental Health Institute trains mental health professionals in how to expand their practice online.Worries about privacy are part of a complex attitude that many Americans have toward their digital engagement.Even as they share more information online, they also want to better control over who can see it, according to a study last year by the Pew Research Center's internet and American Life Project.According to Pew, 50 per cent of internet uses were worried about the information available about them online, up from 33 per cent in 2009. While 86 per cent had tried at least one technique to hide their activity online or avoid being tracked, 59 per cent did not believe it was possible to be completely anonymous.The Pew study, done with help from Carnegie Mellon University, was based on data from 792 internet and smartphone users contacted by telephone by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The margin of error was 3.8 percentage points.The director of Pew's internet project, Lee Rainie, said most Americans view digital engagement as a trade-off, deeming the benefits - including social networking and online shopping - to be worth the risks."They say they're concerned about their privacy, yet they act in ways that don't necessarily show these concerns are a high priority to them," he said. "Old boundaries that people used to be able to attach to their identities and personal information are obliterated."In June, the US Supreme Court came down emphatically in defence of digital-age privacy, ruling unanimously that police generally may not search the mobilephones of people they arrest without first getting search warrants.Mobilephones are "not just another technological convenience," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court."With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans the privacies of life."
