Personal information for sale

Image Source: www.hackerstickers.com

I wonder if Facebook had sold itself with that tagline how many individuals would have joined it. I must admit that I too have a Facebook page and enjoy sending my Zombies off to fight or sending a virtual gift to a friend on the other side of the continent. When I was setting up my page I quickly realized that there are varied ways to share out your personal information on Facebook. I have had the same three books listed because I realized that I don’t necessarily want others to know what I am reading or what movies I watch or what restaurants that I frequent. I realize that many of friends and colleagues have no problems sharing out this information to their “community” and that is certainly their choice.

Last year, Facebook took this a step further by notifying your friends on Facebook about your recent purchases. This possibility was outlined in the terms of use agreement that you approved when you first set up the account, but really who reads these arcane, legalese, and tiny text agreements? Facebook withdrew this new “feature” after mass outrage from users.

My generation exists on a cusp between those who grew up without computer technology and the Internet and those that did not know life without the world wide web. I personally lean towards the previous generation when it comes to my protecting my personal privacy. The first time, Amazon.com greeted me with a “Hello Paksenn” message I was freaked out. Visions of HAL swam in my head but it was simply a cookie from my computer not a sentient being. I don’t want/need personalized search pages for me on the various websites that I shop frequently. I always ask that my personal information not be saved if that is an option which it usually isn’t any longer on these sites.

Babara Fister wrote an excellent essay on Inside Higher Ed yesterday about Facebook and the implications of giving up so much of ourselves to commercial entities. It reminded me that I have choices when it comes to representing myself online and I need to think carefully what each and every choice could eventually mean. That is, rather than assuming that entities like Google and Facebook have less than mercenary interests in them.

Faculty Dress Codes

Once upon a time when we were attempting to obtain “faculty” status within our institution, there was much discussion about what would change for us. The reality was not much, we already had representation on Faculty Senate, the ability to take sabbaticals, and we served on university committees as faculty members. I recall asking if we would be allowed to dress like faculty if we became “faculty.” Realistically, I would have found this more appealing than the list above. I was told that no, we would still be expected to dress professionally thereby distinguishing us from our faculty brethren. In Inside HigherEd today there was a tongue in cheek essay on faculty dress with the following criteria.

“Faculty members shall, when on college grounds or on college business, dress in a way that would not embarrass their mothers, unless their mothers are under age 50 and are therefore likely to be immune to embarrassment from scruffy dressing, in which case faculty members shall dress in a way that would not embarrass my mother.”

Another reason to be proud

Sent to me by a good friend.

“You honor your reservations; you go to your meetings so we can clean the rooms; you’re relatively quiet; and you drink more than the American Legion.”
Anonymous hotel official, on why he liked the ALA annual conference
(Quoted by Patricia Wilson Berger in Chicago Tribune article,
29 June 1990, Tempo section, p. 1)