Although some people are very concerned with our current internet privacy laws which essentially allow for large profit-driven companies to mine, aggregate and keep our online data for their own purposes, for some reason I’m not too concerned. Don’t get me wrong, although I do wish that I could have more control over my own online data and I do believe that our laws should reflect that principle, I don’t see reason to panic.

I mean what’s the worst that can happen? Although I wish that nobody had anyway to find out that I once played ‘Farmville’, the chances of someone isolating and analyzing my data seems slim considering that there are now over a billion registered Facebook profiles. Similarly, although the idea of flying is terrifying to me, I still fly regularly because I understand that it statistically safe. One great example of a popular website with awful privacy settings is Facebook. Not only are the default privacy settings on Facebook appalling, they also amass all of your data – photo, friends list, location updates, etc – for their own purposes. To add insult to injury, although it’s possible to delete your own Facebook account, it’s impossible to erase the data they’ve collected from you. That however, doesn’t negate the fact that when you sign up for Facebook, you agree to their terms. The decision to join Facebook, like all life decisions, is a question of costs and benefits. Although Facebook has undoubtably revolutionized the way we communicate with others each other, I personally don’t buy the deterministic rhetoric that claims that joining Facebook isn’t a choice but instead an obligation for everyone who doesn’t want to be ostracized by main stream society. If enough people were concerned enough about their data to stop using Facebook, the companies would change in order to recapture market share.

Although I wish I could have more control over the privacy of my web presence, I understand that the only way that Facebook can operate is to use my data to sell advertising space; to me, the trade-off is worth it. Furthermore, even if someone did find all of my data, and they had a sinister motives (which again seems unlikely), I can’t think of any way that my data could be used to hurt me in any meaningful way. Although a full fledged digital assault of old conversations with friends and girlfriends, embarrassing ‘selfies’ and old emotionally charged Facebook statuses that were just song lyrics could possibly hurt anybody’s pride, or ruin a presidential campaign, the casualties would certainly be limited.