Is there such a thing as privacy online?

No.

It's tempting to leave it at that. My initial thoughts are along the lines of home security or bank vaults. If the bad guys want in, they're getting in.

However, the online privacy goes beyond the "bad guys." Of course, if a bad guy wants access to your private information, eg banking numbers, credit cards, medical records, etc., he's going to get it no matter online or not.

At first glance, the concept of online privacy seems to belong to the realm of things like blogging and FaceBooking and twittering (I'll figure out how to blootnote to thusly emulate my literary hero, the late, great David Foster Wallace. So consider this a blootnote. And consider a blootnote on thusly, inthat I'm not sure it's a word, but it should be. And so too consider it a blootnote on blootnote to offer the blog/footnote amalgamation though that seems rather self-evident. On with the parenthetical: it seems that a blogging necessity of mine for this MA program is mention of vomiting at least once per course: that time is now. All mention of tweeting and twanging and chirping, burping, etc., makes me want to barf). But for things like that (the 21st century ing-inging listed above) it seems an obvious solution would be to just be careful. And that's where this course's focus on the AUP comes in. Nothing tells a teacher he's got the 13 year olds' attentions when it's 1:30 in the afternoon before a major 5 day holiday and the antithetical (yeah, work it out for yourself) pin drop can be heard as aforementioned teacher assigns the mental task of, "Imagine you're sitting in an entrance interview with (Harvard, MIT, your parole officer [BLOOT!!! I guess that would be an exit interview]) and everything is going just peachy and then comes, "Let's take a look at your FaceBook account" That part the kids get. I think what's lost (and probably misguided) in the "they [as in the kids] know SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much more than we [as in the teachers] about all this tech stuff" is that it's not really that the digital natives (heretofore know as "DN" [plus insert reactionary vomiting here. Plus insert cynical-I'm-reading-a-massive-tomb-of-Marureen-Dowd's-op--ed [an issue with smarmy use of the dash is what to do when one's actually called for] -NYT's-pieces-dating-back-to-President-George-H.-W.-Bush-and [tired of the dashes] thing of the U v. T [us versus them] mentality) know more, it's just that they're more used to it. I think the students have probably seen for themselves pictures, files, irrefutable evidence, of certain egregious acts, and they know it's potentially all right there, for everybody to see. And hopefully most of them think, "I don't want that to be me."

Again, all of those issues can be addressed in an AUP couched in specific terms about general online behavior rather than specific terms about specific online behavior.

So, for me, the real issue of privacy isn't so much who can see what, but what can they see. I'm been using google docs more and more lately, and the use of them has really shown me the light regarding the 1-2-1 laptop program potential. For whatever reason, I much prefer being able to read and respond to students' writings online v. onpaper (SB a W). I'm not sure why. After a couple years of getting my news via the screen rather than via the tree, I've recently resubscribed [as the perhaps one or two attentive readers of this blog will note...well, that might be a bit of a stretch as only one or two seem to have actually read any of it! {and I digress, though, really. Isn't that a fantastic part of the whole blogging issue and what it is that makes the whole privacy thing relevant? People might actually be reading you. A mind bender if you take the time to ponder it...7th grader writing for the world...all 7th graders writing for the world. Of course, the world may not care or even notice. But it's a different beast we're grappling with. It's the ultimate letting go on the teacher's part...the understanding that "you're not doing this for me." }] to the IHT. Anyhow, on an academic institutional level, isn't a primary issue of privacy "How much can/should/do they (the teachers) know about how I (the student) prepared for "project/test/essay"? Imagine if I the teacher could not only read the students' google doc essays but also see their online activty w/r/t the essay. Did the student access Cliffs' Notes online? Did the student refer to the study guide I posted on the wiki? Did the student . . . well, what did the student do online to prepare for essay. Does that matter?

Without too much thought, I think you can take questions like that to the next step...how much should the insurance agent know about my online practices (did I search for dieting tips, stop-smoking programs? Why, exactly, did I do research about heart disease?) Or what about a simple job interview. As I mentioned above, seems obvious not to post FaceBook pics of yourself writhing in a pool of your own vomit or sharing a crack pipe with...well, whomever. But imagine a possibility when the teacher (T) sits down (via Skype, no doubt) with the Head of School (HOS).......

HOS: So, what do you think about Howard Gardner's theory of Multiple Intelligences?

T: I think it's amazing! Your school's adaptation of Gardner's theories is an inspiration for all international schools. I've studied the multiple intelligences for a long time now, and I believe my classroom is one in which students thrive just because of that.....

HOS: Oh, really. And what, exactly, did you learn perusing the web last night for six hours about our school and multiple intelligences?

T: (...)

HOS (...)

T: (...)

HOS: Have a nice life...

So but anyhow....maybe someday you'll need a google account to access the internet. And everything you do and see online will be available to others, similar to FaceBook. Maybe you'll have to open up your iGoogle account upon request...but if you refuse; well then what are you hiding, and why would anyone let you into their University or hire you?