Not so private privacy. . .

I am sure that my 2 year old granddaughter has infinitely more pictures of her than I have had in my nearly 33 times as many years.  The interweb is literally filled with photos.  Some are public and some are hidden away in clouds for those who are given privileged access.  She will grow up in a world far different from the world I grew up with -- at least when it comes to privacy.  Whether she knows it or not, her life has been lived at least in part in the very open world of the internet and social media.  Now, mind you, her parents are far more discriminating that many when it comes to what is posted and where but she has a more substantial media presence than her grandpa and she has never hit send or post -- not once (well, at least deliberately!).

I find it rather odd that we as a society don't want the government in our bedrooms but we regularly tell our most intimate secrets willingly and freely on social media.  We as a culture are offended by religions that violate the politically correct stands of the moment and want to silence the voices of disagreement around us yet we ourselves are not restrained by much of anything.  On TV a commercial jokes about a monitor that plugs into your car the tells your insurance company about your driving but it is not joke.  People a generation ago would have insisted it is nobody's business but theirs.  Phone calls target me for certain products based on a host of information that must be readily available to them or they would not know the age of my vehicle or whether I am eligible for Medicare or who I voted for in the last election.  On one hand we are offended by the leaks of information we consider private by Facebook or financial firms whose computers were hacked but we as a people routinely give out tons of information once considered privileged and private.

I am limited by law for the information I can find out about a member of my parish who is hospitalized and where and why (unless they agree to have it shared with their pastor).  Yet at the same time this information is routinely divulged on social media without even the shrug of a shoulder.  When I get my flu shot I have to sign off on the privacy policy the provider is bound to by law and yet that information gets shared in the background with a host of people I do not know and will never meet -- my health care network!  People routinely sign up to belong to a retail customer rewards program and routinely tell them their email, cell phone number, and contact information and yet when they show up in church they want to be anonymous and refuse to let us know this same information.

It is a strange circumstance.  We guard our privacy but so much of our lives are routinely public.  Yet at the same time, we are adamant that no one dare judge us and all the things we make public --   except, of course, those things that violate the standards of acceptable things as defined by the moment.  It makes me wonder sometimes.  China has been most successful at exploiting the use of such public privacy and has, in effect, turned its populace into spies and probation offices for their neighbors.  We are well behind them but moving in the same direction.  England is filled with cameras recording everything that takes place and the government uses all of this in pursuit of its responsibilities and its political agendas.  We are well behind them but moving in the same direction.  Yet in the end it just may be that algorithms will rule the day in place of a common set of values and morality.  Social credits will become not only the currency of note but that which binds us together.  Perhaps not the kind of social credits China is using but social credits through business and social media with a modicum of governmental participation.  And where will religion fit into this?  You tell me.