We need to reclaim our private spaces

摘要

These days we live a life that generates its own electronic shadow. Over time, most people find a way to ignore or deny it. And over time, particularly for those who have grown up in our new regime of surveillance, leaving an electronic trace can come to feel so natural that the shadow seems to disappear. So, for example, a 17-year-old girl thinks that Facebook "can see everything," and even though "you can try to get Facebook to change things," it is really out of her hands. Another girl says that even without privacy, she feels safe because "no one would care about my little life." For all the talk of a generation empowered by the Net, today's teens are sure that at some point their privacy will be invaded but believe that this is the cost of doing business in their world.