Public Digital Spaces for Private Selves

So maybe I am a little paranoid about privacy. It’s true, I do automatically purge all cookies and history when closing my browser. And I keep no (as in zero) email. And at the end of each day, I stop at adobe.com to delete all my Flash cookies stored there. And … well, you get the idea.

Which is why Google’s recent announcement of their Chrome OS presents such a Faustian bargain for me. I primarily use an Asus Eee PC netbook running Ubuntu 9.10. Chrome OS should be a no-brainer for me. But because all apps are web apps with Chrome OS, everything I produce will reside on servers owned by a private company. No, I won’t be going there.

It’s true, I do use Google Documents some. But it makes me cringe, so mostly I do without the convenience that web apps bring. And likely I’ll use Chrome OS in this same limited and unsatisfying way.

It’s not that I think Google is evil. Maybe they are, maybe they’re not. I don’t know. It’s just that I’m not willing to give any corporation my unmodulated trust, no matter what their privacy statements may say.

Which brings me to a conversation I had recently with my step-son, when I tried to explain my discomfort. He owns a small start-up and is trying mightily to balance an avowed goal of serving the public good with the need to pay his programmers. It hasn’t been easy.

He argues that in the United States we need to develop new forms of corporate organization that can easily straddle a public purpose with some degree of private control and return. He claims, and I’ve no reason to doubt him, that there does not presently exist a legal structure that fits his type of business.

Again, I don’t know. I’m not a lawyer. But I do agree with Bill Thompson, who recently urged that we keep cyberspace open to the public:

We urgently need to consider whether we need, want or can maintain true public spaces online, and who might act as trusted custodians of them.

We need the equivalent of an (inter)national public park for our digital selves, a safe haven with privacy protected. And it should not be littered with the billboards of personalized Google ads in exchange for their custodial beneficence.

Likely I’m just an old curmudgeon with two feet firmly planted in the past. Or I could just as easily be misinformed. But, my goodness, I sure do believe now is the time to ensure that a public digital commons exists for people everywhere as a legacy for future generations.

Chrome OS won’t move us toward that future.