760: on zimmer

I found Zimmer’s 11/08/08 post about Zuckerberg's philosophy of information more compelling than his post on Zuckerberg’s comments regarding FB’s new privacy policies.

I'm struck by this point: FB takes the position that privacy controls (features of the platform) are there for people to use. If people don't understand the controls or know how to use them, that's not FB's fault.
This position, while a bit indignant to some, really identifies a fundamental problem with the use of technology, particularly by Americans. Just yesterday, my CIO related to a small group that the rate of commercial technology adoption in Japan far exceeds that of the United States. One reason cited for Japan's adoption rate is that Japanese end-users are more likely to better understanding of the technology they're using than their American counterparts (apparently the Japanese actually read the manual). This understanding leads to a more rapid exploitation of the technology, in turn creating demand for a better, faster, stronger machine.

For me it's an interesting consideration as we work through this idea of privacy (or lack thereof) in cyberspace. Are the reactions we're working through representative of global concerns, or are they entirely Anglo-centric and an issue only for end-users who don't fully understand what it is they're doing when their tweeting, friending, blinking, and bonking?

As Zimmer notes, "Privacy means something different when we’re in the doctor’s office compared to in the classroom compared to on a social networking website." The problem, as I see it, is getting people to understand the implications of those differences in the contexts of the technologies they use every day.