The Future of Privacy

Many people have been taken aback by the row brewing between Facebook and MoveOn, but it seems to me just one instance of a fundamental clash of ideologies.

Basically the argument in this instance comes down to “opt-in” and “opt-out”, but I believe those are just the visible signs of an underlying philosophy.

On the Facebook side of course what they are doing is going about the business of being in business. What is their main asset? The private details of millions of users. That’s what their product is; a huge database of personal information. To make money they are looking to ways they can use that asset.

From the MoveOn point of view Facebook has taken not just a pro-Facebook stance, but an anti-user position. They allege that initially Facebook provided a global-opt-out from their Beacon ads and yanked it at the last minute. In fact an opt-out does not go far enough to be truly user-centric, anything like this really ought to be opt-in but most businesses would choose the opt-out to ensure a majority of users go through.

Behind the scenes is the idea of “personal information as tradeable commodity”. Facebook is probably the most visible service right now, but if you look at it closely social media is pretty much all about aggregating information, opinions, trends and preferences from as many people as they can attract.

Not so much “wisdom of crowds” as “wealth of crowds”.

As users we need to stand up for our own privacy. The commercial imperatives of the companies that create these tools and services will not necessarily always align with what is best for us. It is up to us to look out for and counteract when these services put our personal information in jeopardy.

Posted on November 27, 2007 by Chris Garrett 
Filed Under Web 2.0

Comments

5 Responses to “The Future of Privacy”

  1. brian on November 28th, 2007 3:00 am

    Hi there,

    The use of our private informationfor corporate gain has gone on behind the scenes forever. The main difference now is scale: you could start a site tomorrow that is able to compile massive amounts of data within a few months.

    Users should do as much as they can to protect their data from the “bad guys”. Problem is, the line between the bad & good guys is blurring as we speak.

    Heck…companies who actually have the resources to protect the information we share are compromising our data almost daily.

    The thing is–you really have no control over how Facebook will use your information–they are truly in the catbird seat.

    So again, do what you can to protect yourself. But realize that the idea of “online privacy” is fast becoming an illusion.

    Cheers,
    brian

  2. Chris Garrett on November 28th, 2007 12:05 pm

    I try to be optimistic but think you are probably right Brian. As someone mentioned to me in passing, “if you want privacy don’t register”. I guess that is the only sure way :)

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