May 19th, 2011
The month of May has turned out to be a doosey in the online privacy department, which got to me thinking: do people really care about their personal data being bandied about by the largest Internet companies in the world?Earlier this month, top-five PR firm Burson-Marsteller initiated a campaign pitching major media outlets, such as USA Today, with a story that slammed Google and its privacy policies in regards to a new product they may be launching called Social Circles. The problem with the smear campaign is it was bought and paid for by the ethically challenged Facebook. If you’ve seen The Social Network, this lack of character should be no surprise at all. Just ask the Winklevoss twins.
So, why did Facebook do this? Because they are scared of Google. What company wouldn’t be? Regardless, Facebook looks like a bunch of clowns who can’t be trusted now. And trust, like the hokey pokey, is what it’s all about. While the story of Facebook secretly hiring this PR firm is pretty sensational, there could be some grains of truth to it. The problem is, it takes the privacy spotlight off of Google for the time being, which in my opinion, is not good.
I find it ironic that Internet users at-large are so concerned with “third-party cookies” and advertisers that track your ad views across websites but have no gumption about handing over their personal data from their Facebook profiles to Zynga so they can play Farmville. On the one hand, you have advertisers like DoubleClick (which was purchased by Google in 2007) who anonymously serve up ads across different websites and tailor those ads to you based on your behavior. On the other hand, you have Facebook, where you VOLUNTEER tons of personal information without thinking twice about it. So, what’s the big deal, you ask? When 500,000 Facebook users “may have had information leaked to advertisers,” it’s a big deal.
The privacy concerns have reached such a boiling point that we have legislation cruising through the House of Representatives called the “Do Not Track Me Online Act of 2011,” introduced in February by Rep. Jackie Speier. Last week, Rep. Edward J. Markey and Rep. Joe Barton , the co-chairmen of the bi-partisan Congressional Privacy Caucus, released the “Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011,” which would enact numerous protections for children and teens, including the requirement of parental consent to collect personal information. While I believe the intent of these bills are good, they raise some interesting concerns such as the ability for companies to implement systems that will actually comply with these proposed laws, should they get passed. For example, the DNT Kids Act would require site operators to ensure that they properly handle the data of any children who visit their sites rather than the individual data of a child who has registered with the site with their parents’ consent. Does this mean that all general websites that might get the occasional kid visitor will have to create an age verification process before you can even read a newspaper article, for example? I hope not.
As business owners and marketing folk, do we unwittingly sully our brands when we use trust-challenged social media outlets as the main communication channels with our clients and prospects? Not yet, perhaps. However, if these shenanigans (always wanted to use that word) by Facebook continue, be warned that your audience may flee your Company Page as fast as a bunch of college students abandoning MySpace. So, what are we to do? Never fear. The answer has been in front of us the whole time. It is called your website. Yes, your website. This is where you can create an information universe for your customers and prospects and all the rules that govern it. You have control and so do your users
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