Generation Google: Daniel Solove on Privacy

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FACEBOOK, MYSPACE, GOOGLE AND BLOGS do more than make the work day go by faster.

They also contribute to an increasing lack of privacy as individuals post information about themselves and their friends online — a permanent record that search engines can pull up for years after the fact.

George Washington University law professor Daniel Solove is a privacy expert, having lectured on the subject and penned numerous texts, both academic and popular. His recent book, "The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor and Privacy on the Internet" (Yale University Press), addresses privacy issues that dominate the Internet today, as well as solutions for balancing new technology, freedom of speech and privacy.

"The Internet is not necessarily a threat to privacy, nor is it a friend to privacy," Solove said. "I think that a new technology exacerbates existing problems and ultimately what matters is what we do, what policies we set and what rules we establish that will govern privacy."

Current policies, Solove said, don't pass muster when it comes to addressing privacy concerns that have developed over the past decade, from security breaches in credit card companies' data to data mining by the government.

"The way that privacy is often conceived by judges and policy makers is obsolete and antiquated. I think we really need to come to a new and more modern understanding of privacy if the law is to adequately address the problems," he said.

The issues he takes on in "The Future of Reputation" focus primarily on information on social networking Web sites and blogs.

"I call the generation currently growing up 'Generation Google,'" Solove said, explaining that earlier generations didn't have to contend with the infinite half-lives of information posted on Web sites and "their past lives in high school and college were generally forgotten. I think for the generation growing up, that's not going to be the case."

The consequences of having information, true or false, floating on the Internet can be detrimental. Solove explains that employers are starting to do Google searches and may be finding "discreditably information" and pictures of them partying, for example.

"They find information about them, whether it's true or false, that others use to make judgments — everyone from an employer to a date ... Then there are some people that are really unfortunate: their information goes viral on the Internet and it spreads like wildfire and millions of people see it and start mocking and sometimes harassing the person," Solove explained.

So what is to be done?

"There isn't an easy answer to that question and I ultimately argue that the law needs to take a middle-ground approach ... We need the law to act as an incentive so that people will blog responsibly and people will use social network Web sites responsibly. What I'm trying to argue in the book is that the law can help shape people's norms and attitudes as they're blogging and using social network Web sites — to make them a bit more thoughtful of others and a bit more responsible and a bit more aware of consequences."

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Written by Express contributor Katherine Silkaitis