You Are Not Responsible for Your Own Online Privacy

In 2010, Mark Zuckerberg told the audience at a TechCrunch awards ceremony that young people--especially social media users--no longer cared about privacy. "People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people," he said. "That social norm is just something that has evolved over time." While this statement obviously hasn't aged well, it reflects a common belief that privacy violations happen when individuals reveal their own information. In other words, when something posted to Reddit or TikTok goes viral, or a nude photo sent to an admirer leaks, it's first and foremost the fault of the person who posted it. This model of individualized accountability is very persistent.