transparency

Yesterday I had the privilege of moderating a panel discussion with three diverse and talented women: Lolita Carrico, Jennifer Taggart and Arpana Vashisht. We talked about moms online, how they empower their communities, and what’s next. If you ever want to make yourself look great just assemble a group of women who are bright, successful and funny and then tell a room full of strangers that they are your friends.

There was a lot of discussion about health and education, and then we got a little more into marketing and location based services. The room was mostly an over 30 room, and the room was not into location based services. Not one bit. One of the big issues that came up was how to be transparent and private all at once.

So the question really is what is transparency? We hear this word a lot, but transparency online can be defined a million different ways. Do not confuse transparency with over-sharing. When a blogger details the intimate moments of their life, that isn’t transparency, that is story telling. When a blogger tells you that they have a day job at XYZ and they love XYZ that is transparency.

Privacy is different, and privacy is evolving. Privacy means not sharing personal facts, like your real name, or your children’s names. Privacy means trying to keep your home address off the web (good luck with that), or even having a blank space when someone googles you. Privacy goes out the window when you buy a home in the US, or join sites like Classmates.com or Facebook. I’ve made a list of five ways you can protect your privacy online.

It’s entirely possible to be transparent online, and still maintain some level of privacy.

What privacy do you wish you still had? I’m assuming we’ve all lost a little bit.