Privacy & Social Network Sites: A Case Of Conflicting Agendas

Earlier this year, Facebook's Zuckerberg said that the age of privacy is over. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, LinkedIn's Hoffman echoed that sentiment (view the video below) - musing that privacy was an issue of "old people" and that younger people are not so concerned over privacy. Many will disagree that privacy is a concern only to certain demographics and many will also disagree that people have to cede privacy simply to leverage social networking. It borders on the absurd and demonstrates either a lack of knowledge about a complicated challenge - or reveals the dilemma operators of social network sites face in terms of a credible business model. In this case, I believe it's both. LinkedIn and Facebook simply do not seem to understand the social dynamics around privacy and compound the problem by implementing technology in a way that exacerbates the privacy challenge (perhaps more so in the case of Facebook).

In order to establish sustainable business models, operators of social network sites will continue to change terms of service and other policies to forcefully encourage people to become uncomfortably public. Twitter perhaps has avoided some of these issues because there are few controls over how people share information Twitter begins the relationship with its members in a more transparent manner - that "everything is on the public timeline". However, Facebook long ago set expectations by offering members a more complete set of controls for people to share information on a perceived limited basis. So when executives from consumer social network sites talk about privacy, I react to whatever they say with a health dose of skepticism. It is self-serving in fact for social network site execs to go on stage and diminish the value of privacy when they benefit by its very erosion (to the dismay of members).

The risks and rewards of sharing information online | John Gapper's Business Blog | FT.com

It can be hard to find an actual disagreement at Davos, given the social effects of sticking a lot of people in workshops and asking them to flesh out the future of the world convivially.

So it was encouraging (for a journalist) to come across a clear and important divide in the first session I attended this morning, on internet social networks.

The topic was privacy, a contentious one for social networks such as Facebook (represented in the session by Randi Zuckerberg, sister of its founder). Facebook’s recent changes to its privacy settings to open up more content to the public caused a backlash.

Reid Hoffman, founder of LinkedIn, the professional social network, told the session that “all of the concerns about privacy tend to be old people issues.” Young people generally put mobile phone numbers on social networks because “the value of being connected and transparent is so high.”

The risks and rewards of sharing information online | John Gapper's Business Blog | FT.com 

  Key Video From The World Economic Forum’s Social Networking Powerhouse Panel

Comments

[Trash Company Evans]

For me, privacy for a networking site is really important and it should not be taken for granted.

[How to password protect iPhone]

I'm kind of person who is very much conscious about security and privacy.

[dell latitude laptop battery]

So when executives from consumer social network sites talk about privacy, I react to whatever they say with a health dose of skepticism.

[Jordan 1]

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[microblogging]

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[mike]

security and privacy should be respected by all as our rights.

[ffxiv gil]

It is absurd boundaries, and demonstrate whether it is about a complex challenge, lack of knowledge - or reveal the social networking Web site operator in a credible difficulties faced by the business model. In this case, I believe it is both. LinkedIn and Facebook do not seem to understand the social dynamics around privacy and the way through the implementation of complex, exacerbated by the challenges of privacy (and perhaps more so the case of Facebook) technology.Yeah,i agree with it.

[Social Network Development]

Privacy of members is something that should be protected by website developers. It is inevitable for people not to share infos online. That's what social networks are for in the first place. I am planning to put up a site for a specific target audience, and I am more focused on privacy settings. As a Facebook and Twitter user (and other social media), I am very much concerned about my privacy. I got an issue with Facebook before on privacy settings. The first day that they launched the new privacy interface, I was annoyed because I was more comfortable with the old settings. Later, I realized that any changes in these settings and features of any social media is just part of its social network development.

[comments system]

I think that the largest SN out there right now - FB, is trying hard to show its members that FB cares about their privacy. I think that's already a big step. BUT, I do wish they would stop changing the privacy setting all the time. Anyway, thanks for the post, it was good reading! :)