Podcamp has come and gone once more in Toronto.
The annual event took place at the Rogers building at Ryerson University in downtown Toronto, and was well attended by people of many different backgrounds interested in podcasting in general. There were technical presentations as well as others based around issues of ethics.

One of the best presentations of the day was delivered by Brad Buset from Espresso, who spoke upon the issues surrounding online privacy protection.
Privacy protection is a complicated issue becoming ever more sophisticated as companies and individuals attempt to strike the right balance between transparency and personal information. At times, the line has been crossed, mostly due to the newness of some of the channels with which we can publicize our information. As an example, Brad pointed out how enterprising criminals could create correlations between an individual’s twitter posts to figure out likely times to rob them, in effect creating a cost/benefit analysis. That was an eye-opening thought.

On the other hand, he also pointed out quite succinctly the benefits of social media and information sharing.
“For each person who got fired because of their facebook account” he asked, “how many more were hired because of the insights they were able to reach in 146 characters or less?”

During the presentation, it was pointed out that there is a privacy equation, in which information and utility are balanced. In other words, we’ve come to accept that we must offer up certain information to achieve the utility that we seek. Sometimes that information is simple, sometimes it is more personal or valuable, and we must balance that against the perceived value of the utility we are seeking.

My observation is that there is certainly a generational bias in terms of how much information and of what type people are willing to offer for utility. The younger that audiences skew, the more likely they are to offer personal information to achieve what they want to do. That is interesting as it correlates with something I’ve noted in working with a lot of young people (college age or younger) – they are not paranoid like those who have gone before them. Perhaps because they have grown up in an environment online where they are asked to sign up so often.

This trend is even reflected in the utility of software. To try out a free trial of some online application, the user is often prompted right away in very clear terms “click here to begin” – even before the benefits of using the software are explained. In the past it was harder to get people to engage without first clearly explaining the utility. Now more often it is accepted that people will dive in and begin.

Could this be a tacit recognition that most people are now arriving at the site for the trial software on recommendation from a friend or user-review? Certainly it is not uncommon for people to seek out reviews rather than reading through the documentation printed up on the actual site for a product. Why trust the people who stand to make money off of it when you could read about it from an unbiased user of the product? And if the potential user has already gathered all the information they need, why complicate their lives by presenting it to them again. You’d be better off giving them a clear way to get started straight away.

That same willingness to enagage is not far off from the willingness to offer information. If we trust what our network of ‘friends’ has offered up to us, we are far more likely to volunteer information about ourselves in order to engage with it. For those who have grown up seeing the internet as more of a social experience rather than an information retrieval mechanism, the level of comfort with offering information is much higher. For them, the internet is a place populated by friends where most of their content is given to them from trusted resources.

Perhaps this explains why younger users are far more likely to set their information to public, and why advertisers like to target young audiences.