kirk Information

Hi kid! You dont know me, but Im one of those Internet expert kind of guys they interview when something bad happens. I wont bore you with the details, but lets just say that I make big computer systems for a living and I know how they work. Im not your mom or dad, or a teacher, or your church leader, or your coach, or a cop. I dont know you, either, and honestly, I dont care about you personally so much that Id want to scare you or exaggerate things or otherwise lie to you. I love the Internet, and Im pretty proud of this amazing place that my friends and I have built. Theres a lot of great stuff on it, and I truly think its one of the best things that people from all over the world have ever come together to create. I think we did a pretty good job, for the most part. The thing is, its also easy for bad things to happen on the Internet. Im not talking about stuff like child predators or terrorists or hackers trying to steal your iTunes credits. Yeah, those things exist. But yes, the news exaggerates them a lot to scare you and to make you want to watch more of the news (see how that works?). I dont want to do that. The truth is, youre way more likely to have trouble from the wrong people seeing things youve written or pictures youve sent than you are from any Stranger Danger. Social networks are awesome. I use the same ones you do - and some that you dont even know about yet - to talk to my friends the same way you talk to yours. I think theyre great. However. Every single one of them tells the same lie: that you can click a keep all my stuff private! checkbox and all your stuff will stay private. If you only hear one thing Ive said today, let it be this: Oh, they dont mean to. The people who made Facebook and Twitter and WhatsApp are smart people who try awfully hard to do a good job. However, making giant computer systems like that is super difficult and it only takes one itty bitty mistake in a giant tangle of a million moving pieces for it all to break. When you see a setting like only share this with ...