I've been meaning to write about the issue of online privacy, but other things keep stopping me from doing it. So in the interest of getting it out there, I'm re-posting a slightly edited comment of mine from August on somebody else's blog:

I think we’re going to have to redefine the word ‘privacy’ in the very near future. The fact that future employers could do a thirty second Google search for my name and come up with something to be offended by doesn’t mean that they should be allowed to. We’ve drawn those lines in the sand before, and I think we’re going to have to again.

For example, if I were applying for a job, the person doing the hiring could come to my neighborhood, knock on all my neighbors’ doors, and ask questions about my personal life. They could peek in my windows at night to see what I’m watching on television or to see if I walk around in my underwear. They could sort through my mail looking for incriminating correspondence or a political perspective that doesn’t match their own. They could follow me to dinner with friends and listen in on our conversation to see if I have anything negative to say about anybody, or to see how I tip the waitress, or to see if I use a lot of swears.

In each case, they could do these things, but as a society we’ve decided that it’s generally unacceptable. Maybe it’s time that we expanded the definition again.

I worried about this and used a screen name for a long time, but after I was online for a few years, it started to feel like I was hiding something, like I was embarrassed or ashamed of what I was saying or doing. I also felt like I was shortchanging the people I was interacting with online, some of whom I know better than many of my offline friends.

I finally came to the point where I just decided that if an employer (and there are other applications for this) doesn’t want me because he found a three-year-old post on a forum while digging for dirt, he’s probably right that I shouldn’t be working for him.

Randall Munroe of the often-brilliant xkcd.com hit it from another angle when he posted this:

So that about says it, right? I do know some of this is just beating my head against a wall. But darn it, I refuse to censor myself completely because of what someone might think at some undetermined date in the future.

What do you think? Comments are open.

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