Today the Internet knows what you’re doing, who your friends are, and how much money you make. The Internet knows when you were born, your favorite books, and turn-ons.

The Internet knows these things because we tell it – and it makes it easy to do so. The problem is, once we tell it something it never forgets. The Facebook account deletion debacle is a microcosm of the problem.

The Privacy and Security section of the site’s Help pages explains that a form has been added to the Deactivate Account options. Facebook decided not to provide a mechanism for users to delete accounts themselves, but says that it is keeping the situation under review.

I can assure you now that any information you store in any online account will remain there for the rest of your life. Servers are backed up constantly and your information can (and is) sold to other companies. Your service emails are kept on local drives and servers and so on.

Deleting accounts online isn’t even worth the bother – deactivating them or removing them is good enough. If you’re really concerned about your privacy – store your information locally. Don’t use Google Calendar, Myspace, or LinkedIn. Time is the only reliable way to maintain your privacy. Old information is less valuable and eventually you can distance yourself from it.

Why create a HealthVault account – doesn’t your doctor have your medical history on file? Why announce your birthday to friends – they probably already know.

It’s simple and quick, but if you already know the information do you really need to post it online? When someone really needs to know, they’ll ask – unless it’s already online for them to see, steal, and sell.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 13th, 2008 at 3:32 pm by Anil Polat and is filed under rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.