Wired to Over-Share?

You’ll hear a lot about (lack of) privacy on the Internet, and as expected, Facebook is the lightning rod for much of the criticism on this count. But is that really true? That’s the question Ian Leslie asks in his article, “Too much information”:

“But what if the problem isn't Facebook’s privacy settings, but our own?”

Is the problem that we have evolved for sharing in tribal societies and our privacy instincts are not suited for the super massive community of the Internet?

So what are some of these rules that are now mis-firing? For one, mistrust of authority figures and institutions. Thus, if a government asks for personal data, we cringe and ask why? But if we are offered a chance to share it voluntarily (on the Internet), we don’t think much.

This offer of a choice then feeds into our feeling of control. We made the choice, so we feel we must be in control. Except we aren’t, at least, not on the Internet. And even less so on Facebook, where the privacy rules keep changing.

Then there’s the follow-the-crowd rule:

“This kind of rule-of-thumb — when in doubt, do what everyone else is doing — works pretty well when it comes to things such as what foods to avoid, but it’s not so reliable on the internet.”

James Grimmelmann says the same thing, a bit more graphically:

“When our friends all jump off the Facebook privacy bridge, we do too.”

Then there’s the reciprocity principle, so necessary in the wild, but not always good on the Net:

“If I reveal personal information to you, you’re more likely to reveal something to me. This works reasonably well when you can see my face and make a judgment about how likely I am to betray your confidence, but on Facebook it’s harder to tell if I’m trustworthy.”

And finally we may not be getting the permanence of data on the Internet:

“Humans evolved their instinct for privacy in a world where words and acts disappeared the moment they were spoken or made. Our brains are barely getting used to the idea that our thoughts or actions can be written down or photographed, let alone take on a free-floating, indestructible life of their own. Until we catch up, we’ll continue to overshare.”

Leslie’s conclusion:

“Over time, we will probably get smarter about online sharing. But right now, we’re pretty stupid about it.”

Would you agree?