Tracking digital footprints through the online jungle

Pew Internet has a report out about how we leave and track digital footprints across the web. Here are some highlights

Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47% have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22% five years ago. However, 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.

Yeah right......only 47% and 74

In the report, they define 4 groups of Net Natives in the Jungle

Online adults can be divided into four categories based on their level of concern about
their online information and whether or not they take steps to limit their online footprint:

Confident Creatives are the smallest of the four groups, comprising 17% of online
adults. They say they do not worry about the availability of their online data, and
actively upload content, but still take steps to limit their personal information. Young
adults are most likely to fall into this group.

The Concerned and Careful fret about the personal information available about
them online and take steps to proactively limit their own online data. One in five
online adults (21%) fall into this category.

Despite being anxious about how much information is available about them,
members of the Worried by the Wayside group do not actively limit their online
information. This group contains 18% of online adults.

The Unfazed and Inactive group is the largest of the four groups—43% of online
adults fall into this category. They neither worry about their personal information nor
take steps to limit the amount of information that can be found out about them online.
Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information
available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that
information.

Unfazed.....Uneducated and Naive more like, the Digital Bunnies in the jungle

More interesting even is that apparently Kids are more Private than adults:

Among adult internet users who maintain an online profile, 82% say that their profile
is currently visible compared with 77% of online teens who report this.

Among adults who say they have a visible profile, 60% say that profile can be seen
by anyone who happens upon it, while 38% say their profile is only accessible to
friends.

Teens with visible profiles make more conservative choices with respect to visibility;
just 40% said their profile was visible to anyone, while 59% reported access that was
restricted to friends only.

Danah Boyd feels this is because adults are not walking the talk:

In other words, adults (and presumably there are parents in this group) are telling teens to be careful online and restrict what information they put up there while they themselves are doing little to protect their own data.

This reminds me of adults who tell their kids never to meet strangers online under any circumstances and then proceed to use online dating sites and, rather than meet in public places, choose to go to the stranger's private residence. Adults need to think about safety too - it's not a story of binaries. The safe and practical approach is somewhere between abstinence and uber risky behavior.

I disagree to an extent....

Firstly, I suspect many adults are using SocNets for different reasons - ie work / network related so it is in their interest to have more data publicly available (Linked In profiles for example) whereas kids are using it to communicate within more formed (and defined - eg school, college etc) social nets.

Secondly, I am sure one would find 2 other groups of adults in there - those telling their kids to be careful and being so themselves, and those who don't do either.

I am always a bit concerned by surveys that take the line of "everyone is letting it all hang out more online" (so why not you implied)....one has to look at where they are coming from. I'm quite glad to report that I googled Pew Internet and found that they claimed that impartiality was their modus operandi.

Anyway, I like Nick Carr's alternative take on this discrepancy:

I'm willing to bet dollars to doughnuts that the primary reason teens restrict access to their Facebook and other online profiles is not because they are dutifully following their parents' and teachers' advice but because they're trying to hide stuff from their parents and teachers.

As for adults, the reason they're happy to let it all hang out is because, alas, there's nothing much to see. When was the last time you saw an adult being photographed while engaging in the ancient rite of tap-sucking?

Funnily enough....

In a related article, I note that Sociologists are studying a group of Facebookers:

Facebook’s network of 58 million active users and its status as the sixth-most-trafficked Web site in the United States have made it an irresistible subject for many types of academic research.

Scholars at Carnegie Mellon used the site to look at privacy issues. Researchers at the University of Colorado analyzed how Facebook instantly disseminated details about the Virginia Tech shootings in April.

But it is Facebook’s role as a petri dish for the social sciences — sociology, psychology and political science — that particularly excites some scholars, because the site lets them examine how people, especially young people, are connected to one another, something few data sets offer, the scholars say.

Message to those careful youth - you can hide, but you can't run