Privacidade vs. publicidade na Internet

Hoje podemos colocar o nosso nome no Google e pesquisar a informação sobre nós que se encontra dispersa na Internet. Mas será que gostaríamos que essa informação fosse consultada pelos nossos contactos profissionais?

O artigo
How to Lose Your Job on Your Own Time
By RANDALL STROSS
Published: December 30, 2007

WERE Henry Ford brought back to life today, he would most likely be delighted by the Internet: the uninhibited way many people express themselves on the Web makes it easy to supervise the private lives of employees.
In his day, the Ford Motor Company maintained a “Sociological Department” staffed with investigators who visited the homes of all but the highest-level managers. Their job was to dig for information about the employee’s religion, spending and savings patterns, drinking habits and how the worker “amused himself.”
Home inspections are no longer needed; many companies are using the Internet to snoop on their employees. If you fail to maintain amorphous “professional” standards of conduct in your free time, you could lose your job.

in New York Times - Business

O estudo
Digital Footprints

The Pew Internet Project's latest report, "Digital Footprints," finds that 47% of internet users have searched for their own name online, up from 22% five years ago. Yet, even as internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint, few monitor their online presence with great regularity.
Just 3% of self-searchers report that they make a regular habit of it and 74% have checked up on their digital footprints only once or twice.
Indeed, most internet users say they are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information. Fully 60% of internet users say they are not worried about how much information is available about them online. Similarly, the majority of online adults (61%) do not feel compelled to limit the amount of information that can be found about them online.
When asked about eight different groups of people one might search for online-ranging from family and friends to romantic interests and business colleagues-53% of adult internet users said they had looked for information connected to at least one of these groups.
These searches for others are often focused on basic contact information, but can be wide-ranging:
* 72% of people searchers have sought contact information online.
* 37% of people searchers look to the Web for information about someone's
professional accomplishments or interests.
* 33% of people searchers have sought out someone's profile on a social and
professional networking site.
* 31% have searched for someone's photo.
* 31% have searched for someone else's public records, such as real estate
transactions, divorce proceedings, bankruptcies, or other legal actions.
* 28% have searched for someone's personal background information.

in Pew Internet & American Life Project