Jennifer Lawrence

As the celebrity photo-hacking scandal has made clear, privacy isn’t what it used to be.

Whether famous or seemingly anonymous, people from all walks of life put all sorts of things online or into cloud-based storage systems, from vital financial information to the occasional nude photo. Periodic cases of hacking fuel outrage, but there’s no retreat from digital engagement or any imminent promise of guaranteed privacy.

“We have this abstract belief that privacy is important, but the way we behave online often runs counter to that,” said Nicholas Carr, whose extensive writings about the Internet include the 2010 book, “The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.”

“I’d hope people would understand that anything you do online could be made public,” Carr said. “Yet there’s this illusion of security that tempers any nervousness ... It’s hard to judge risks when presented with the opportunity to do something fun.”

The latest headlines involved nude photos of actress Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities that were accessed via hacking and then posted online. Apple, which created the iCloud and other content-sharing systems, says individual accounts of some of the celebrities were targeted and hacked.

Privacy experts said users of online and cloud technology need not be famous to be vulnerable.

“What we’re seeing is people who innocently and in many ways naively are lulled into sharing information that they wouldn’t share with their next-door neighbor,” said Marlene Maheu, a San Diego-based psychologist.

Maheu offers this advice in regard to anyone with privacy concerns: “Would you be comfortable sharing this information at Thanksgiving dinner? If you’re not, a red flag ought to go up.”

Worries about privacy are part of a complex attitude that many Americans have toward their digital engagement.

Even as they share more information online, they also want to better control over who can see it, according to a study last year by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project.

According to Pew, 50 percent of Internet uses were worried about the information available about them online, up from 33 percent in 2009. While 86 percent had tried at least one technique to hide their activity online or avoid being tracked, 59 percent did not believe it was possible to be completely anonymous.

Eleven percent of Internet users said important personal information had been stolen online, such as their Social Security number or bank account information, according to the study, and 21 percent said an e-mail or social networking account had been compromised or commandeered. And those findings came before disclosures of massive credit card data breaches at Target and other retailers.