Ok. Lots of news stories and opinion lately about nude selfies and digital privacy following a high profile theft of celebrity photos, revealing nude photos.
I think there's several things at play here:
- Nudity in our society. We're against it, apparently. If I walk around naked, peacefully, then I can be arrested and charged as a criminal. There's nothing wrong with nudity, per se, and we can be naked in private and in the company of consenting adults to our hearts content. I'm all for nakedness - I don't have any problem with it in principal whatsoever. I'd like a society where we could all be freely naked; I think it'd be healthier.
- Celebrities. Everything is exaggerated and heightened when discussing celebrities because they have an aura of admiration and ardulation that makes us treat them differently to ordinary non famous people. So I want to take them out of the argument for clarity.
- Patriarchal control of women. Men telling women "cover yourself, don't be naked". That's a whole separate issue that I want to keep entirely out of. I believe in freedom of choice and a society that enables personal freedom.
- Privacy and protection of property. After the Snowden revelations I don't put anything deeply personal or important on a net-connected computer. I'd feel very uncomfortable knowing there were nude photos of me on a digital device because I know how easily (and permanent) digital data is.
To keep things simple, I want to focus on the issue of digital privacy and forget all the other things.
If you have something sensitive and you want to keep it safe, putting it on a modern smartphone is a really bad idea. It's a net-connected device which, in all likelhihood, isn't all that secure at all. It's the equivalent of putting a vase on the very edge of the table and hoping it doesn't get smashed.
It probably won't get smashed... but it might.
As a sensible person, I put it in the middle of the table so the risk is reduced.
We all have a right to digital privacy but, as I see it, we're far from actually being able to enjoy true digital privacy. The table has a wonky leg and it wobbles.
Right now, digital privacy is a myth, an ideal, a contradiction in terms.
And I will be advising friends and family to just avoid taking naked pictures of themselves. It's not worth the risk.
If you miss someone - be patient. Make the time to be with them physically, it'll be worth the wait.
Also, the responses I've had back that have been negative and saying "You're victim blaming" - all of those responses were from men.
The responses I've had that said "Yeah, I agree" have so far all been from women.
I'm talking a handful of people here, so it's not exactly mindblowing, but I found that interesting.