Global Data Privacy Day and a 21 year old

I would be remiss if I did not post something about today being Global Data Privacy Day - so woot woot - everyone may now celebrate their privacy!!

right.

Perhaps Snowden is celebrating, but the rest of us in the U.S. at least are dealing with data breaches and privacy violations with little to no government intervention and lots of outrage towards the government from large megadata corporations. I try to be positive and not abscribe deflection motivations towards these large technology companies, but it does require some effort. Yet, I remain optimistic that those companies who collect, share, analyze, combine, and use our data in every way imaginable and some ways never imagined by the common person actually are becoming privacy conscious. If not, fake it till you make it.

But more importantly in my own family - today is my youngest child's 21st birthday. WOW. Happy birthday to her and I am sure everyone reading this (anyone reading this) wishes her the best. 

So what does a 21 year old think about privacy? She grew up in the information age, where every thought, emotion, intention, and action is immediately shared, judged, and forgotten. Except nothing on the internet is ever forgotten. (California just passed a law that minors can request their information on social media to be erased. No one really knows what this means yet, but it's a start.).

It has been proposed that millenials, GenY'ers, have no comprehension of privacy and have missed learning basic etiquette of society - there is no period of reflection when something happens - it is immediate reaction, instantly shared, no sense of privacy. I disagree to some extent. I think the new group of young professionals completely understand what being on the job/on call for the job 24/7 due to smartphones means. I think they treasure quality of life more knowing they have to fit in life around work and school. That leaving work at 6 pm does not mean being off work - and they compensate by enjoying life more.

So I asked my newest adult daughter what privacy means to her. Her first response was "What? What about?" - but perhaps I was a bit blunt and unexpected in my question. So I explained more and am anxiously awaiting her answer as I type this. 8 minutes later, I am still waiting. Perhaps it is not only the newest generation who expect immediate gratification...

We are seeing changes every day in privacy - some for the good, some not so much. Young and old, U.S. or not, corporate or individual - we are all impacted and some will care more than others. Some will do more than others. It's a brand new world every time the sun rises. Take the opportunity to make a change in the way you share/use data whether your own or someone else's - take the opportunity to think about what privacy means to you.

Happy Global Data Privacy Day and Happy Birthday, my child.