There’s no Hiding Online (no matter what they tell you)

I’ve been meaning to write this blog entry for a while, so pardon references to incidents that are now a few weeks old. However, it’s a relevant topic that will remain so as social media sophistication marches on: Privacy online.

In the June 7th issue of Newsweek, Daniel Lyons writes a column titled “Facebook’s False Contrition,” in which he proclaims that he is deactivating his Facebook account because of the recent privacy fiasco. I have to admit, the article got a little under my skin. His reasoning for deactivation was a culmination of his anger at the company for sharing information with advertisers. He’s not alone. Thousands joined a Facebook group (how ironic) threatening to quit the site if the privacy issue wasn’t taken care of. Modifications were made and the uproar died down – for now at least.

What annoyed me about Mr. Lyon’s reasoning is that he is angry that Facebook considers its advertisers customers and not the site’s users. Well, duh. As a member of Facebook, I’m not paying for the service, and considering the company is expected to bring in $1 billion this year, they’re getting that dough somewhere. And why not? There are 500 million members on Facebook. As an advertiser, if you’re not on Facebook you’re missing a great opportunity to get in front of your target audience (because they’re ALL there). Why then is it so surprising that member’s information is being shared with advertisers?

And this is only the beginning. Information sharing via social networking sites is only getting more sophisticated. I recently connected with an old friend who works for a company called Media 6 Degrees. The company helps clients to connect with customers through “social targeting.” In other words, they help companies reach potential customers by tracking the movement of their “friends” on social networks. For example, I interact with my friend Sarah frequently on social networking sites. I also recently purchased a pair of Adidas shoes online. The likelihood that Sarah might also prefer Adidas shoes is pretty high. Media 6 Degrees lets Adidas know that Sarah is probably someone they should be targeting with an ad on one of her social networking sites. Pretty clever.

Dare I say – I actually appreciate the sophistication of it. I encounter hundreds of ads every day (you do too). Wouldn’t it be nice to see ads that might interest me? Unfortunately many people don’t feel the same way. I agree that my privacy is important, but I’m also not naive to the fact that I can have a presence on social media sites and still keep my anonymity. That’s just not how they work. If you’re uncomfortable with it then you may want to consider (gasp) disappearing from social media sites all together. Well, let’s not get crazy.