It's funny. As technologists, we're supposed to be privacy nuts. That's part of our stereotype, our schtick. We know just how vulnerable our personal data is and it scares the bejesus out of us.
But our actions certainly don't back that up. At least, not mine. I use the latest websites in my daily routine, I blog, I use twitter, flickr and just about everything else publicly. I stopped creating accounts under aliases and prefer to speak openly as "Alex Rudloff" most every where online. My reasons are fairly straight forward (anonymity brings out the worst in people), but yet there's a certain element of creepiness associated to things like facebook's beacon. I don't blog about specifics when it comes to business or work encounters or what I've been searching for on Google or buying on Amazon. Not only is it often in poor taste, in this day of profiling, I guess it's just the notion that there are certain history books best bought with cash, ya know? Privacy has become this strange, mixed up concept. We're really sensitive in some ways, but completely not in others.
I started thinking recently about the amount of data I've given about my life and my habits. I think the tides started to turn with Google making larger and larger headway into our lives. GMail was the specific catalyst, but only because its the most obvious privacy related thing. Long before GMail, Google could track our every move on the web via search and AdSense widgets on what seems like a majority of sites.
We expect things on the web to be free. At the same time, we know that very little in the world is actually free, it's just monetarily free. A web company's goal is to create something that is so valuable to you that you are willing to overlook certain questionable things, like scanning emails for relevant ads (initially seen as super creepy). I checked out GMail though, and decided that I really liked it. The ads became less important. In fact, they almost became kind of neat. Gavin and I will bounce company ideas off each other via e-mail sometimes, and on more than one occasional, Google has displayed an advertisement for a company doing the same thing that we didn't know existed. Lazy man's research.
Ultimately, I've traded an element of my privacy in exchange for a service that I find great worth in. It's not a free service, I'm just not paying for it with my wallet. My privacy is the currency.
Facebook has increasingly shown an unwillingness to put user concerns first in their thinking. They'll release something incredibly invasive and then apologize when their community freaks out. We all know how that works, the whole "it's better to apologize than ask permission" thing. All Zuck has to do is smile pretty, apologize, and scale the feature back a tiny little bit and people calm down and move on. It happened with news feed, it's happening with beacon -- but those are just the two things people noticed. What else is facebook doing with our data? Should we care, or is facebook worth the cost?
Beacon had me so freaked out that I walked through what would happen if I simply removed my account (my natural, gut reaction). The fact is, I'd lose contact with a lot of people instantly. There's no easy way for me to take my data out and apply it somewhere else. There is no friend export and there isn't anywhere suitable for me to go. I'm paying the currency because I find worth in facebook the same way I find worth in my cable company. I want the cable, I just don't want it from them. Unfortunately, I have little choice (for now).
How many people who signed up for Mint.com, a site where you add all of your financial accounts in exchange for advice on how/where to save money, are still finding value in it? Would anyone feel comfortable letting others (say, a social community) see their search terms if it meant a better search experience? Or do we just trust google with that information?
I guess the question is, at what point does something cost too much when it comes to privacy? Who are we comfortable paying with privacy, and what level of trust defines that?
I'm not sure what my answers are yet, but I'm curious to hear other folks' thoughts.
Privacy as a Currency...
Alexander C. Rudloff
... is a software engineer, entrepreneur, and technology enthusiast. Located in Orlando, FL. Alex's RSS Feed
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Comments...
(Page 1)1. Alex, you pretty much nailed it. There's been a steady trend from anonymity to exchanging bits of privacy for something of "value". Some even go out of their way to make their lives an open book through lifestreaming etc. in the name of "personal branding". Sometimes there's also a bit of a herd mentality as people race to be early adopters without stopping to think. While all of this IS fascinating stuff, some of it creeps me out.
11:58AM on Dec 6th 2007 by Jim Hathaway
2. I loved the "privacy-as-currency" analogy and it certainly lends itself to further study.
You can choose when to exchange privacy for services... and you can even use the same privacy token several times. The real problem lies when someone shares your privacy without your permission: this devalues your currency and you get something you don't want in return.
I can't wait for true network portability... if I could grab my social graph and easily move it somewhere else, most of these websites would be a lot more careful with our privacy.
12:06PM on Dec 6th 2007 by Carlos Granier-Phelps
3. When I share something about my life its me telling a story.
When someone else shares something about my life its a violation of my privacy.
A small but important thing to keep in mind but it comes down to control.
12:20PM on Dec 6th 2007 by Gavin
4. Excellent post! The privacy currency is truly backed in trust, as in, "Do I trust what this service or people are going to do with my data/info?"
My trust is gone in Facebook. But, I too can not sort out how to move that network of connections to another service. I have been ready to move on to the next better thing (not just next thing) for many months mostly because the Facebook interface can not handle/scale with the size of my network or the handful of applications or things I have interest in following on that service. They have been decent on the technology side, but horrible on the design, information architecture, interface structure, etc. This is truly the time we need the portable social network.
12:31PM on Dec 6th 2007 by vanderwal
5. I stopped using Facebook several months ago. The odd thing that I found with it was that there's no option to delete you account, but only to "disable" it.
In the end I just asked myself, "What do I really use Facebook for?" Most of the people that I was 'friends' with on there are people that I very rarely, if ever, had any desire to talk to.
Things like groups, status updates, and profile updates are more of "look how awesome I am" features.
Patrick is: awesmoE!1!11
3:25PM on Dec 6th 2007 by Patrick Payette
6. Had an interesting conversation tonite ...
one of the things I realized is there is a big difference btn secrecy and privacy. And that honestly - as much as say we want secrecy (that info not to be out and about) we don't actually act that way hence our behavior on facebook.
What we want is a NEW form of privacy. Which is basically not that the information is secret. But that we can determine how it is used and if WE think it is used appropriately.
What we are looking for is rights. Which is truly the way to go about doing it at this point. Information is too easily gathered. the cat is out of the bag. We need to instead protect what can and can't be done with it.
We can do that thru laws and thru voting with the pocket book and by using social currency.
9:27AM on Dec 7th 2007 by Silona
7. Alex, I've thought a lot about this myself which is one of the reasons I bought my name.com. Coming from the data side of I.T. I keenly understand how the information I put out can and will be used against me. I made the conscious decision to take the lead on my data output in order to maintain some control on both Input to me (googlizing) and my professional reputation. My hope is maintain some consistency and integrity in who I am as both a woman (human) and a professional. It forced me to ask and answer the hard question: How do I want the world to see me? Would I be ashamed or embarrassed if my children and/or future grandchildren came across this info about me online? & the big one - Am I living my life in a manner that would not be ashame to my family or hurt me professionally? What's to be afraid of...?
Valerie
2:48PM on Dec 9th 2007 by Valerie
8. Personally, I have no problem with the data feed or with Beacon. When everyone freaked out about newsfeed, I said why? I mean to me that was the whole point of facebook was to tell people what you're doing and find out what they're doing. If you don't like that, do like my girlfriend, and don't sign up. She still functions without it. Beacon is simply smart advertising to me. I'm going to be bombarded with advertisements...beacon (if I understand it correctly) just makes sure those ads are about the latest gidgets and gazmos instead of tampons. I got to say, I'm cool with that.
Why do people crave such privacy anyways? I guess it's just human nature, but the only thing I need to keep private are things that will prevent identity theft etc. Privacy of those things went out the window a long time ago, and nothing short of shutting down the entire internet is going to change that. (In other words, facebook is not the problem with lack of privacy) And even before the internet people were stealing identities anyways...maybe it was even easier because we didn't have the technology to track these people.
I guess what I'm trying to say is I wish everyone would relax about this whole privacy thing. In the end it's really not a big deal.
11:48AM on Dec 18th 2007 by Tyler