Day 8: Privacy and the Internet

Something interesting happened on a message board of mine recently that I feel a need to comment on, because there are interesting connections to blogging. 

The incident surrounded a specific message board on The Nest, wherein some of the members decided to start their own private (passworded) message board on a different website.  On this message board, they talked about a lot of private marriage and family issues, but they also used it as an outlet to talk about other members of the public board behind their backs.  As it would be, this board was somehow found by members of the public board, hacked into, and now everyone on the public board knows what these private board girls were doing. Needless to say... much drama.

There's a lot of question of who's at fault in this situation.  Was it the girls who started the board?  Was it the person who hacked into the board and spread the information? Both?

Without pointing fingers, I learned something in my middle school note passing days that I think needs to be shared:  If you want to keep something secret, don't put it in writing. That's an interesting concept coming from someone who has a blog, but by comparison, I'm approaching this project with the knowledge that anyone and everyone will have full access to what I write.  I've seen other 101 in 1001 lists that mention some more private or "R-Rated" goals that I frankly wouldn't be comfortable putting out in public.  My family sees this blog, friends, and there's always the possibility that former students or co-workers will google me and somehow come up with this.  Therefore, I'm not sharing anything that I wouldn't share with everyone, and I think that's a big thing to remember about the written word and the Age of Information.

And on a lighter note: VERY good news!  It turns out that despite the seemingly small 90 mile distance, my girl scout nieces are in fact selling the "thanks a lot" girl scout cookies.  Why Milwaukee scouts are selling them and Chicago ones aren't are beyond me... but in any case....2010 is saved!  I bought four boxes.  Thinking about buying more.  Just saying...