« Some Things Never Go Out of Style | Main | Numbers and Politics »

May 03, 2006

Statement of Principles

Several bloggers have gotten together and crafted a statement of principles for bloggers addressing privacy for bloggers and public figures. I'd argue that most of it is just common decency, but as my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Insani, used to say about common sense, it's often quite uncommon. Putting the principles into simple, declarative statements and asking others to sign up isn't a bad idea, if only because it ought to remind bloggers to think about these issues before posting.

I do hope that the signatories do, in fact, take the principles to heart. It's easy to add one's name to a document; it can be much more difficult actually living up to the principles that document embodies. Nonetheless, I think the decision to post these and try to publicize them is a wise one, as those who were planning to violate these principles will likely do so anyhow, but those who simply haven't considered the question may read these and reconsider an action that would violate them.

Online privacy is a difficult thing to maintain. For me, it's not much of a big deal, as I post under my own name (which poses its own risks; one of my former bosses advised me to stay away from blogging), but an enterprising person could use that against me. It certainly wouldn't be difficult to track me down to express disagreement with any of my posts. But even pseudonymous bloggers face challenges, as anyone who's really determined to crack someone's identity can probably do so. And some bloggers have not hesitated to try and unveil the 'secret identity' of pseudonymous bloggers they disagree with, actions that could have serious consequences for bloggers whose places of work ask them not to blog, or worse yet, for bloggers in foreign nations where the state has no hesitation in hunting down and removing voices of dissent.

There is no way to know in advance how successful this statement will be. But the statement endorses the right principles and serves as a valuable reminder of how online discourse should be conducted.