According to Google's chief Internet evangelist Vint Cerf, online privacy is over-exaggerated.
At an Federal Trade Commission (FTC) workshop called the "Internet of Things" held on Tuesday, November 19, Cerf said privacy is a new development and may not be sustainable in the long term.
"Privacy may actually be an anomaly," said Cerf, while fielding questions at the FTC event.
He warned that "it will be increasingly difficult for us to achieve" privacy.
"Most of the experience with privacy is a result of our own behavior," said Cerf. "Our social behavior is quite damaging to privacy. Technology has outraced our social intellect."
Cerf also explained that this is not a new development as privacy was not certain even several years ago. Cerf himself used to reside in a small town that did not even have land phones and the postmaster knew who was getting mails from whom. Even then there was no privacy as in a small town of 3,000 people everyone knew what the other was doing.
According to Cerf, rather than privacy being an integral aspect of society which has waned because of technology, the latter is responsible for creating privacy.
"It's the industrial revolution and the growth of urban concentrations that led to a sense of anonymity," Cerf said. "Privacy is something which has emerged out of the urban boom coming from the industrial revolution."
Additionally, an individual's social behavior can also be damaging to one's privacy.
"The technology that we use today has far outraced our social intuition, our headlights. ... [There's a] need to develop social conventions that are more respectful of people's privacy," per Cerf.
Cerf is of the opinion that privacy conventions that are more respectful will develop in the future as we evolve.
"We are gonna live through situations where some people get embarrassed, some people end up going to jail, some other people have other problems as a consequence of some of these experiences," said Cerf. "This is something we're gonna have to live through. I don't think it's easy to dictate this."
