The Family Privacy Paradox: When Your Loved Ones Outsource Your Data
Series (Part 2 of 5) — Unwrapped: What the Holidays Reveal About Our Data
Every December, our feeds overflow with togetherness. Family dinners, matching pajamas, unwrapping videos, moments worth sharing. But when everyone is posting, tagging, and uploading at once, our privacy becomes a shared project, whether we realize it or not.
Privacy isn’t just about what you choose to share anymore. It’s about what others share that includes you. Maybe it’s a friend tagging you in a holiday group photo, or a relative uploading pictures of your kids. Even a harmless video clip can include location metadata, facial recognition tags, and behavioral data that social platforms use to build out profiles.
This is what some researchers call “networked privacy,” the idea that our data is intertwined with the people around us.1 When one person shares, others may be exposed in the process.
A few simple boundaries can go a long way:
- If family members are visiting, check what devices are connected to shared Wi-Fi networks, smart TVs and speakers collect more than most people realize.
- Ask before posting group photos or tagging friends.
- Use shared albums with limited access instead of posting publicly.
- Turn off location tagging on photos and videos.
It’s not about being paranoid or anti-sharing. It’s about respect. Setting expectations before the holidays can help everyone feel more comfortable, especially when children or guests are involved.
Privacy doesn’t have to mean isolation. It just means taking a moment to make sure everyone gets to decide how they appear in the digital story of your family.
If you’d like to discuss privacy — or have questions about this post or your organization’s privacy practices — contact tiffany.soomdat@tueoris.com
— Tiffany A. Soomdat, MSL, CIPP/US • Senior Consultant @ Tueoris LLC
- Marwick, A. E., & Boyd, d. (2014). Networked privacy: How teenagers negotiate context in social media. New Media & Society, 16(7), 1051-1067. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1461444814543995 ↩︎
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