Social networking use creates creeping threat to privacy, according to academic

People routinely posting embarrassing personal details and photos on social networking sites are eroding all of our collective privacy rights. That is according to Dr Kieron O’Hara, a Senior Research Fellow in Electronic and Computer Science at Southampton University. He gave the example of an embarrassing photo at a party. A decade ago, we may have expected that photo to be circulated amongst a small group of friends. Now, our expectation may be that it ends up being posted on the Internet for all to see. When you consider the creeping law of privacy in this country – such as the ability of famous people recently to avoid being named and shamed for attending brothels or orgies – this may be counter-balanced by a lowering of the standards for what is to be considered private. The argument runs that when you look at what is deemed to be private, you need to consider the concept of people’s reasonable expectations of privacy generally. That expectation is diminishing through the prevalent postings of highly personal material on social networking sites.

Paul Gershlick, a Partner at Matthew Arnold & Baldwin LLP and editor of www.Upload-IT.com, comments: ‘This is an interesting take on things. Maybe the newspapers should make more of it when they next need to defend themselves next against a claim that they infringed someone’s privacy.

‘Meanwhile, we can look at this social networking phenomenon from another angle. There was a Court of Appeal case three years ago when Loreena McKennitt successfully sued an ex-friend for publishing a book about their private time together. The next development would be a court case where a regular person is sued for infringing someone else’s privacy by posting details or photos on social networking sites. Watch this space. It’s bound to happen soon. Be careful what you post about people you know and make sure you’re not that test case!’