Social Steganography: Hiding Stuff In Plain Sight
Isobomber sent me a link to a piece by Danah Boyd on how people can allow many people to access their social networking pages but still maintain their privacy:
When Carmen broke up with her boyfriend, she "wasn't in the happiest state." The breakup happened while she was on a school trip and her mother was already nervous. Initially, Carmen was going to mark the breakup with lyrics from a song that she had been listening to, but then she realized that the lyrics were quite depressing and worried that if her mom read them, she'd "have a heart attack and think that something is wrong." She decided not to post the lyrics. Instead, she posted lyrics from Monty Python's "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." This strategy was effective. Her mother wrote her a note saying that she seemed happy which made her laugh. But her closest friends knew that this song appears in the movie when the characters are about to be killed. They reached out to her immediately to see how she was really feeling.Privacy in a public age
Carmen is engaging in social steganography. She's hiding information in plain sight, creating a message that can be read in one way by those who aren't in the know and read differently by those who are. She's communicating to different audiences simultaneously, relying on specific cultural awareness to provide the right interpretive lens. While she's focused primarily on separating her mother from her friends, her message is also meaningless to broader audiences who have no idea that she had just broken up with her boyfriend. As far as they're concerned, Carmen just posted an interesting lyric.
Social steganography is one privacy tactic teens take when engaging in semi-public forums like Facebook. While adults have worked diligently to exclude people through privacy settings, many teenagers have been unable to exclude certain classes of adults - namely their parents - for quite some time. For this reason, they've had to develop new techniques to speak to their friends fully aware that their parents are overhearing. Social steganography is one of the most common techniques that teens employ. They do this because they care about privacy, they care about misinterpretation, they care about segmented communications strategies. And they know that technical tools for restricting access don't trump parental demands to gain access. So they find new ways of getting around limitations. And, in doing so, reconstruct age-old practices.
More on Steganography here. I do something similar in order to avoid getting fired by some of the more conservative outlets that run me. Instead of saying dominatrix, I'll say girl in a latex dress. This was more the case in years passed -- papers have relaxed a little -- but there's one daily that can't print "fart," and I worry about what they do to "butt." Amazing. (And they wonder why papers are dying.)
This works the other way, too - as American expats, my wife and I have a host of references that our kids - and other Israelis - mis-parse or just don't get.
Ben David at March 2, 2011 9:12 AM
Interesting post. I am connected to people from various parts of my life on Facebook and Twitter. I only post things that I would be OK with anyone reading on either one. I'm not much into sharing truly personal information via means that facilitate wide distribution.
Christopher at March 2, 2011 9:36 AM
Very interesting. Shows how effective and flexible language can be.
My parents and most of my relatives are my Facebook friends, and I do this sort of thing all the time.
Most of the older relatives only use FB to look at pictures of my cousins' babies, but my mom follows both my sister and I pretty closely, I've noticed (we're both in our 20s!). And she doesn't really get the nuances of FB etiquette yet.
If I post song lyrics, she will write things like "that sounds sad why did you post that grandma told me you sounded sick when you talked to her on the phone yesterday. did you go to the doctor."
If I want to slip one by her, I use a lot of abbreviations, slang, pop culture references, and LOLcat. For example, "Pedialyte, FTW!" communicates to my peers that I'm hung over.
sofar at March 2, 2011 11:22 AM
Steganography is hiding a message by diluting it into another larger transmission.
From the Wikipedia link:
== ==
Media files are ideal for steganographic transmission because of their large size. As a simple example, a sender might start with an innocuous image file and adjust the color of every 100th pixel to correspond to a letter in the alphabet, a change so subtle that someone not specifically looking for it is unlikely to notice it.
== ==
Carmen's message was not stenographic, but was obsucre in meaning. Only her friends would know that there must be a deeper, true meaning in her quote from Monty Python. This is similar to the Davinci Code, obcure clues with subtle meanings.
Andrew_M_Garland at March 2, 2011 11:36 AM
I think Andrew is correct.
Hasn't this time of thing going on? I mean when I was a kid we had code for talking on the phone which was always in the family room where everyone could hear. They might hear me say something like "How are you feeling about the math test on Thursday?" which might mean "Can you meet up after school on Thursday?"
The Former Banker at March 2, 2011 12:19 PM
"I mean when I was a kid we had code for talking on the phone which was always in the family room where everyone could hear."
This is true. And personally I'll take encoded messages that a few close friends can interpret over the pity party status updates that tend to litter Facebook and Twitter. As much as I enjoy both sites, I can't stand when people (close friends included) post things like "Life sucks", and, "When will my time come?", and "Trying to go on...". These posts are inevitably followed by about twenty people asking what's wrong and reassuring the person of how amazing they truly are. I'm not usually this cynical and I hate to admit this; the more someone complains online, the less sympathy I have for them. I don't mind the occasional venting or someone needing a little morale boost once in a while. But weekly "woe is me" updates? Blech!
JonnyT at March 2, 2011 4:00 PM
You can choose which friends see which posts and which friends don't. It's a little lock next to the share button with a dropdown list, click customize.
nonegiven at March 2, 2011 4:25 PM
Another way the kids get around parents is making up a name variation and creating a different FB account. The real name one gets vague posts so Mom doesn't get suspicious and the real talking gets done on the other. I only found this out when my daughter came clean and asked if she really had to be my friend on FB. I may be the only parent who thinks its ok to not be my kid's friend on FB. I kind of enjoy all the talking we do and would rather the energy be spent on our conversations rather than ways to fool me into getting some privacy.
Kristen at March 2, 2011 6:32 PM
... or you can build a REAL relationship with your kids such that you don't have to spy on them.
I have 2 left at home - 15 and 16 year old boys, and very independent (here in Israel, kids that age hitch-hike everywhere).
I know who my kid's friends are. They spend lotsa time in our house (another good parenting strategy). I know what they think of the *girls* in their grade level. I know how they're doing in school. I know what hikes/events the youth group is planning.
I set aside time for them, regularly. Each kid knows they have my ear at least once a week, no distractions.
We eat together, and have traditional Jewish Sabbath together.
I don't have to spy on my kids. The computer is in a public space of the house. My wife and I glancingly review what's going on. I check their browsing history - we had unobtrusive monitoring software, but they've never deleted anything from the browser. Yes, they've looked at prOn - they are teenage boys! - but I can see that it hasn't become a habit, and they have normal social lives.
I'm not perfect- and I'm NOT my kids' "best friend" I'm clearly their father - but investment must be made. There are ways to be on top of teenagers while respecting their growing independence.
Ben David at March 2, 2011 10:44 PM
Dealing with FB is easy. Just think "if I were standing in a crowded room with all my friends would I say this" before you click Share. Of course, in my case this doesn't hold me back much. But then I rarely post personal stuff - it's more like a localised blog.
The hard part about FB is remembering who will see the different things you type - if you comment on someone else's post all their friends see it, if it's your post only your friends (or whoever you choose) sees it, etc. Requires a flexible mind to accommodate the shifting rules.
Private code is common, but I agree with Andrew Garland that that's not really steganography. Talking in vague terms in a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge, those of you in the loop know what I mean" way is not the same.
On the other hand, I'm very glad my mother is not on it. Sister, brother, and sister-in-law is bad enough.
Ltw at March 2, 2011 11:10 PM
There is always code and shorthand that only a certain group/age/generation will understand. Finding out what someone is reference has become easier with the advent of the internet. But it is a matter of taking the time to look beyond the surface.
For example, "Pedialyte, FTW!" communicates to my peers that I'm hung over.
I wouldn't get it initially -- especially if you have kids. But select the text and right-click, and Search Google for "Pedialyte, FTW!" gets me the answer in about 3 seconds -- just by reading the links returned by the search -- not even going to the next site.
I wouldn't get 420 friendly, O.P.P., graffiti tag 187, and several others until they came up in some conversation and I asked or Googled.
Hobo's had/have a whole code that they tag locations with that they know, but the rest of the population misses.
This is just the same thing electronically.
But this has been happening in some form or fashion
Jim P. at March 3, 2011 8:29 PM
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