Privacy? What privacy?

In an interesting coincidence, our class reading assignment on privacy was scheduled during the same week the growing buzz surrounding HTML 5 boiled over to a noticeable concerns. The new Web language is the fifth installment of the ubiquitous Hypertext Markup Language that shapes not only Web pages but also how we interact on them. (It’s already in limited use and will soon come to dominate Internet browsing.)

From a technological perspective, HTML 5 is both the product of evolution and enterprising genius. It was only a matter of time before a new version of this coding was ushered into use—one that, as a New York Times article put succinctly, “will make it easier for users to view multimedia content without downloading extra software; check e-mail offline; or find a favorite restaurant or shop on a smartphone.”

But with those advances come some disturbing infringements on privacy. In addition to the usual “cookies” that track user behavior in most browsers, HTML 5 includes more invasive software that collects and stores large amounts of data about how and what you’re browsing online.

“Because of that process, advertisers and others could, experts say, see weeks or even months of personal data. That could include a user’s location, time zone, photographs, text from blogs, shopping cart contents, e-mails and a history of the Web pages visited,” according to the Times report.

Or as Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum put succinctly: “HTML 5 opens Pandora’s box of tracking in the Internet.”

In our text, Patterson and Wilkins discuss the right to privacy versus the need for privacy. The two concepts are intrinsically intertwined. In this case, you could argue that Internet users have a right to keep their browsing habits and history private (as long as habits and history are legal). You could just as easily maintain that privacy is necessary to continue the free exchange of ideas that has fueled growth on the online medium for the last two decades. (If you knew your every move was being watched, would you be so willing to shop or communicate online? I wouldn’t.)

The authors put it best when they argue, “Privacy is not a luxury or even a gift from a benevolent government. It is a necessary component of a democracy and the foundation of freedom, individual dignity and autonomy” (p. 125).

While the Internet in many ways operates outside of the control of the government, it is also perhaps the most democratic of mediums. As long as you have a connection and a means to communicate, you have a voice.

It will be interesting to see how those voices respond to HTML 5. The Times cites numerous lawsuits and protests to current tracking mechanisms. I can only imagine these will grow more numerous and outspoken in the coming weeks and months. Here’s hoping tracking software picks up the outrage and programmers scale back their spying.