Tough Love on Tech

Jan. 2, 2008 — -- In the dim iridescent glow of millions of LCD screens, on millions of electronic devices, stashed in homes or clutched in hands, there are millions of people basking in a kind of giddy, gadget afterglow — the fallout of a prosperous holiday season.

Now wake up. It's time for some tough love in the consumer technology world.

As these modern electronic marvels continue to shrink to portable, personalized de facto human appendages, hard-wired in our everyday routines, it is all too easy to forget who should be in charge of your online experience — it's you.

With every click of a mouse, every text message, every Web site surfed, in search of that last available anything, you are making choices about whether to share personal information and with whom, and which content to access or make available to your children. In doing so you are no more or less exposed than when you're at the mall or standing at the ATM or walking to your car alone at night.

Although we routinely secure our wallets in crowded places and shield the ATM screen from prying eyes, we blithely intermingle our personal, private information with the seductive ease of an electronic gadget, never giving a second thought about who is collecting it. We fail to teach our children how to protect themselves online or use the myriad tools available to shield them from inappropriate content.

The genius of the Internet is that it was designed without gatekeepers. All of the power rests at the ends of the network, with us, the users. That's what allows us all to be innovators, creators and entrepreneurs. It's also what allows bad actors to launch viruses, spyware and scams, and is fertile ground for a breadth of content that sometimes pushes the envelope of decency.

While cyberspace can be daunting, failure to take advantage of the tools and resources available to you to manage your online experience is simply foolish. "User empowerment," isn't just a clever phrase, it's a responsibility that cybercitizens need to take seriously. Yes, taking the time to protect yourself may be annoying, and for the least tech savvy among us, may seem overwhelming.