Facebook learns a lesson about the power of social networks

The issue of privacy and control led to a rude awakening for Facebook last week when the company realized that what they thought was a minor change to their Terms of Service policy, was actually a very big deal to thousands of their users, who revolted en masse when reports surfaced that the company had taken over the rights to all personal information, images, and data uploaded to the site and not just temporarily, but even after they had left Facebook and closed their account.

Despite the fact that this interpretation was strenuously denied by Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer, Chris Keley, the company was forced to make a hasty U-turn in order to stop a bad PR story from turning into a media disaster.

The Facebook fiasco highlights the fact that people are still very sensitive to the issues surrounding the use of personal data. This subject is addressed from another angle by Jeff Jarvis in his recent book: ‘What Would Google Do?” Jarvis - an advocate of openness and sharing online - states: "Privacy is not the issue. Control is."  He argues that the sharing of personal information is a social act, and that to withhold this information "may be a new definition of anti-social or at least selfish behavior."

Jarvis himself  ‘eats his own dog-food’ and practices full disclosure regarding his life and business interests on his blog. He recounts the words of one Google executive who - with intended irony - states: ‘there isn’t any privacy, get over it.”
I’m sure Facebook were hoping that their users would ‘get over it’ too, but they underestimated the basic human instinct to protect the ways in which we are seen by others – which is at the heart of the concerns regarding privacy online.

The argument will be familiar to those working in the public sector where the concerns surrounding the security of personal information has become such a big issue in recent years.

Those of us pushing for the creation of new services that tap into the power of information recognize the need to balance the use of personal information to deliver customized services, while at the same time protecting data, and keeping control in the hands of users – not an easy task.

Jarvis hopes for a world where “our new publicness may make us more empathetic and ultimately forgiving of each others’ and even public figures’ faults and foibles.” He quotes David Weinberger who said: “An age of transparency must be an age of forgiveness.” After all, asks Jarvis: “who are we to throw stones when Google has moved us into glass towns?”

However, as Facebook discovered last week, not many people like living in glass houses. If they feel too exposed or feel their privacy is threatened, they will throw stones just to get out.