The Wall Street Journal’s Jessica Vasellaro penned a comprehensive breakdown of Facebook’s privacy-related trials and tribulations this morning (Facebok Grapples With Privacy Issues). Here are the main issues at stake.
- Facebook is the largest social network on the web (approaching 500M users), and has recently unveiled several innovations that have opened a user’s “private” information to the “public” internet domain. For example: “At a developer conference, Mr. Zuckerberg unveiled features that include a “Like” button that other websites could add to allow users to share information back on their Facebook profile pages. While Facebook said it wouldn’t pass these websites any personal data about users, users and privacy advocates grew nervous when they learned that the data about the Likes would be public.”
- As a result, the FTC is investigating the legality of Facebook’s “opt-out” data sharing policy, and watchdog organizations are pressuring CEO Mark Zuckerberg (and company), to install more “opt-in” tools so people can more directly control the flow of their “personal” information.
- Mark Zuckerbering, however, is resistant both to external pressures, as well as the internal prodding of Facebook employees who are concerned about the company’s reputation and trust among users. Convinced that individual users and companies will eventually want to share more of the private data – facilitatiing a more personalized and targeted social web experience – he is reluctant to capitulate.
Thematically, this storyline represents another in a long line of concerns over web privacy. And some valid concerns and objections are raised by both parties. However, I keep coming back to one needling concept: the Internet has never offered a privacy guarantee.
The modern Web does not exist without shared information and mutual access. At it’s bare bones, it is an interconnected network of content and commerce, where anything you’ve ever uploaded, read, written, bought/sold has a traceable story. The Web exists explicitly to facilitate never-ending engagement between individuals, businesses, news organizations, non-profits, governments, and other entities. And none of that engagement is completely secure or private.
The supposition that every piece of personal data will be perennially and undoubtedly protected is inherently misguided. There is always an opportunity for data and information to be released because that information is housed on multiple platforms and is never completely erased.
However, social networks (like Facebook) that tout security measures and make certain guarantees are no doubt beholden to that promise and should be held accountable. But has Facebook ever explicitly said that an individual’s or business’s demographic information or history is secure? Not that I recall. If privacy is yours or your company’s penultimate concern, then best means of protecting private information is simply not to release it online at all. Users and businesses are in complete control of what they publish. Always.
The knee-jerk reaction for many is to simply disassociate with the modern web. For B2B and B2C companies, that is a marketing death-sentence. The velocity of adoption and engagement is such that businesses cannot afford to be absent where their audience is looking for information, services, and products. I’ve recently found myself reiterating this to those companies concerned about social media, and what “engaging” could mean for their brand as more and more information is released to the public. It’s a tough pill to swallow, but much needed medicine – particularly when the benefits of social media engagement are measurable and definitive.
There’s never been a privacy guarantee online. And the only way that realization could threaten the success of a business’s engagement in social media marketing would be if that business were to assume the only means of success was sharing sensitive information. Such is not, and never has been, the case. There is a still a wealth of information you CAN share that will make social media participation worthwhile. Company developments and success stories, new product lines, new internal hires, landmarks for the firm, client successes, reactions to industry news, promotions and contests for customers, etc.
The trick is to double- (and triple- and quadruple-) check (if needs be) that before you hit “send” or “publish,” that the content you are releasing is consistent with a tailored marketing message and is not something that could eventually come back to haunt you.
Successful social media engagements do not hinge on sharing any secret sauce. However, successful marketing engagements in the 21st century do hinge in part on social media.
