User:Sj/privacy

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

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This might eventually be split into monitoring and privacy. Privacy and monitoring, and how much of each should be done for children and other users of online services, remains an issue for Wikipedia; less so thanks to its low level of social engagement, but there nonetheless.

On monitoring and tracking data for protection

From a berkmanfriends discussion about what rights children should have to privacy and whether one should expect children's social sites to store personal data forever, while expecting other social sites to do the opposite.

Most cultures protect children and newbies from the environment until they can defend themselves. Many practical and historical reasons to treat children specially stem from their being sensitive, malleable, powerful in potential. More than their immediate contentment or safety is at risk: also their impression of the world, self-image and identity, family and cultural connections, and motivations for lifeswork.

Some questions worth answering about privacy and safety follow. Are any of them enumerated in legal or cultural literature? This might be a thread to cross-post to both legal and div-school forums - the concepts of monitoring and guidance as a service are well developed in modern religions.

What are the dangers|benefits of private communication? (enumerate)

What are the dangers|benefits of read-only exposure to a constellation of ideas, modes, and cultures?

...to rapid immersion in same?
...to being able to share details of ones own life in such a constellation?
...to interactive two- and multi-party environments where others can seek you out and target information specifically at you?

What are the dangers|benefits of highly mixed environments with no or weak norms?

What are the [dangers of | useful practices for] allowing individuals, families, and clans to set and enforce their own norms?

what are historical examples in law and religion, and in education and guilds and politics?

How strongly do experiences and norms in one environment influence behavior and equilibria in other environments?

...how does this vary with one's age, past experiences, personal convictions?

What are the dangers|benefits to keeping permanent records of all interactions?

...in an environment with perfect information between/about all parties, including the monitoring itself
...in an environment where one group is closely monitored and another does the monitoring (in private) and is not

What are the dangers|benefits to keeping secrets?

...about one's motives, desires, preferences | one's identity, background, past actions
...in an environment of almost-perfect information | in an environment where information is expensive

How does each of the above affect personal development over time, from infancy to death?