Issues of privacy are often countered by arguments for an increase in the freedom of information. Freedom of information was the main driver behind the open access movement. At the extreme end, advocates argued that new technological drives are irrepressible, and privacy safeguards futile. Privacy, it was maintained, can only be secured by concentrating on increasing the freedom of information for everyone and everything. In short, making everything public destroys the problems associated with secrecy.
However, the open access movement has grown to acknowledge some important limits in the complete freedom to access all information. Some national, organisational and personal information does require secrecy to maintain economic advantage and personal freedom of expression free from social scrutiny. Ultimately, open access and online sharing relies on an understanding and respect for what is acceptable to others (netiquette).
Houghton and Joinson (2010) identify the importance of co-owned information and boundaries within which sharing occurs. However, they highlight the difficulty of managing these boundaries and the need for users to be aware of the difficulties. To be aware of difficulties relates strongly to being aware of social norms of behaviour (the netiquette for specific situations online). Schoeman (1992) refers to these as ‘privacy norms’.
In the light of the open access movement, this analysis would suggest that acceptable open sharing can be maintained as long as all parties are aware of the social norms online (netiquette) guiding our sharing behaviours before we share information.
According to the ‘Adams (2001) sharing model’ behaviours can be broken down into three guidance points. Acceptable open sharing is achieved through maintaining accurate awareness of:
Timing: 1 hour
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