McCullagh begins by stating that “privacy” involves a variety of different issues and because of this, there is no single definition of “privacy”. She then continues by providing DeCew’s cluster concept of privacy, which she believes provides a useful concept for her study on bloggers and their sense of privacy. DeCew’s cluster concept consists of three aspects of privacy: (1) information privacy; (2) accessibility privacy; and (3) expressive privacy.
Additionally, McCullagh provides five main findings of her study, based on an online survey that was completed by 1,314 respondents. First, the survey showed that bloggers value self expression and social interaction. Many bloggers used blogging as a medium for self-reflection. Second, it was clear that bloggers value privacy. Because of this, there were many categories that bloggers found too personal to post about (i.e. sex/relationship, financial information, etc.). Third, bloggers are aware of privacy risks. Therefore, some bloggers tried to preserve their anonymity by restricting personally identifiable information about themselves. Fourth, blogs are perceived to be public spaces. Many bloggers expressed that privacy and anonymity was not possible on the internet, and the more accessible a blog was then the more it was considered to be public. Finally, the survey showed that bloggers employ different mechanisms to protect their privacy. One example is that some individuals password protect their blog so that only certain people have access to it.
While reading this article, I of course thought a lot about Facebook. Many of the categories which bloggers stated were too personal to write about online, I have found many of my friends updating about! Twitter and Facebook I believe has made it very hard (if not impossible) for people to separate their private life from their other lives (work life, school life, etc). So while a lot of people in the study listed topics they wouldn't write about, I am sure many of them have contradicted themselves and done what they said they would not do. Because of this, I found McCullagh's implications at the beginning of the study to be quite important since "it is well documented that people's perceptions of their own behavior can differ from how they actually behave" (7).
I really enjoyed reading your post! You did a great job going over the key aspects of the article. I thought this subject was very interesting since privacy is a big problem on the internet. You mentioned one key part of the article that "blogs are perceived to be public spaces. Many bloggers expressed that privacy and anonymity was not possible on the internet". I agree with this topic to an extent. Bloggers know that what they post online with be made public to their viewers so it is up to them to be selective with their topics. I have never blogged but I do go on Facebook. Like a blog people need to be careful with the pictures they post and comments they right. Yes there are privacy settings but once somthing is on the Internet it will always be. Good job with your post! It was very inciteful:)
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