This week’s San Francisco privacy court case, while addressing a reprehensible crime that doesn’t apply to 99.9999% of us, does serve as a reminder of what we always felt should be obvious. When you share information on the Internet in a public fashion, it is, ahem, public. That is, out there for anyone to see. You have to wonder about the car thief who steals a rare red Ferrari and then parks in on the street in front of their house!
Heaven knows there are many times that you want to share publicly – anytime you want information available to any and all comers. And, of course, you shouldn’t ever traffic in illegal information of any kind, whether you are keeping it private to yourself or sharing it publicly. But remember, there are many kinds of information to which you have a legal right, that you should still keep careful private control over. E.g., personal information, confidential business documents, and the like. Keep all such information private to you, and only share it with others by using secure, private web sharing sites.
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