Trying to Design Around a Fear of the New

I've always been vaguely aware of fear, uncertainty, and doubt around new technology. But somehow lately I've been more aware of it. Every tech reporter seems to bring up the fear of how anything they are reviewing can be misused. Anything at all. I have met half a dozen people who won't go on Flickr lest someone see their photos. So they email them around, or host on the Kodak service instead?

But somehow the most scary one lately has been location services (or, as everyone calls it "GPS"). This post by Bruce Schneier, quoting the EFF on location privacy is a good example of a narrow technical discussion that implies the inherent scariness of storing and sharing.

I am sure there is something to this scheme (actually, in theory I rather like it) but it helps communicate an inherent fear which I don't get. And I certainly don't want to design maximum restriction around everything, because that will just reduce use of these services. And low-use social services might as well not exist.

I'd like to get more location sharing, myself. I rarely sneak out to smuggle guns to the guerillas or meet my mistress in Argentina (which I presumably want to keep from everyone). But I do work 45 minutes from my house, sometimes. It would be nice if my parents, for one, just knew where I was without having to call and ask how far away I am.

But let's stop talking about location specifically. My impression is that all new things are scary. Until they are not. This post Everything Will Destroy Our Youth has even more funny examples. Like an 1859 quote from Scientific American about how chess is bad for you.

But assuming that our current fear of networked information is more valid, or at least more relevant, it's harder to just blow them off. While typing this, I am arguing with a perfectly tech-loving friend about this very topic. Does networking change everything? Maybe, but for the fact we've been on the internet for a couple decades. When is everyone going to learn how that works and just behave appropriately vs. fearing it all the time?

Latitude, for example, always invites "I don't wanna share my location with everyone" responses when I invite someone. But it doesn't. You already get to pick and choose. Built into the system. (Perhaps the EFF has something where evildoers or Google or the government can see you when they want, but aside from lawbreakers, it's fine).

These perfectly common sense hints about safe text messaging use presumably apply mostly to email, and apply mostly to mail, teletype, telegraph and messengers. Yet, email is pretty accepted and only a bit feared. And I have actually worked on projects where I had to remind people to not automatically print personal information (including passwords) on postcards. It's paper, so it's perceived as not dangerous.

I don't want to wait a few decades for everything to become (possibly inappropriately) perceived as safe. And I don't want to just assume all fears are unfounded, and make everything open and insecure. But I'd like some way to tell what the right approach is without just guessing or using my own opinions.