A friend of mine had a unique strategy. Because she had two kids, and she works in a job where she has to know the pulse of the social networking community, she never had her actual name on any of her social networking sites. She just chose a persona name that she used consistently across everything. Eventually, Facebook tracked her down and forced her to use her real name. Now, her real friends know her as the persona as well. So who was she harming? No one. She was actually protecting her reputation and her family from prying eyes -- protecting her right to privacy as best she could.
If you ever wonder why you can't get out of that job you're in, just take a look at your online profiles. What are you telling the world about yourself? And imagine your boss, and your HR department, having full printouts of all of it. Scary, isn't it?
Now, before you go assuming I am "hating" on Facebook, let me give Facebook some love. Last week, Facebook released a new privacy feature that is a substantial enhancement for controlling our online social circles -- the ability to control, at the "friend" level, what each individual friend has access to. In the previous system, you had to relegate friends into two categories: Full Access or Limited. Facebook realized that we do not just have two types of friends, we have groups we are willing to share different aspects of ourselves with. Circles. And in order to protect ourselves in the more ephemeral world of online friending, we needed more control. I know, this is really not that hard of an insight if you actually socialize outside of the pict-o-cube you type on, but I will give them some love anyway for finally hiring someone with a social life in the real world who notices such things. Guess what? Facebook was listening after all. Well, at least in the area of privacy control of your profile.
As far as ad targeting -- yikes. Facebook understands the technology behind advertising, but it is socially clueless when it comes to actually understanding consumer needs. Reminder: On my 40th birthday, I don't want to see ads for reading glasses, even if I need them. I do not want to be targeted by dating sites the day after coming off an engagement. Seriously, is there a human involved in this process for social rules to the ad system? At least wait three-to-four weeks for that type of targeting. It would probably work better for response, and at least it would have prevented me from throwing my laptop across the room, which, I found, is not advisable, as laptops don't really bounce as much as clank. It is one of the fundamental failings of online marketers: reliance on technology to make the decisions that rational humans would know are wrong.
Now, in Facebook's defense, you can actually set some of the advertising controls. But how many of you have done that? Certain profile data points, such as a more serious "relationship status," should default to "off" and trigger social rules based on approach to the ad system. Just a sweet little suggestion, Facebook, with a scoop of broken laptop.
Facebook is actually making positive steps forward. It is still clumsy sometimes, but at least it is stumbling forward instead of walking across the nearest landmine, which it is so adept at doing.
But all of this is a concern for privacy beyond a single site. Facebook is going in the right direction, but many are not. If you are concerned about these issues and want to get more involved, look to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit protecting our digital rights when those rights come under attack. Unlike most of our politicians, they understand what the issues are and what technology can do. Without them, people in our government who actually sit on telecommunications committee's like Sen. Ted Stevens "the internet is a series of tubes," and "an internet was sent by my staff," would rule the day. Think about it and throw them a couple bucks. With all the illicit activity you do online anyway, you're probably going to need help at some point. Think of it as throwing money in a collection basket at church. At some point, you're going to try and call in a favor.
As advertisers and marketers, we tend to view the world through a myopic lens that sees only barriers to getting at the consumer data we need; data that would make our work lives easier and help us sell more products. Let's not lose sight of the consumer, the human being, at the end of the process. What we fight for not only impacts their rights, but our own. The societal effects of us wanting all of that information might be good for your business, but is it really good for you?
Sean X Cummings is director of marketing for Ask.com. Read full bio.