Facebook & Google Held to Different Privacy Standards than Legacy Companies

While a majority 74 percent of Internet Natives born 19911995 who take a position on the value of corporations agree that they make important contributions to society only 20 percent believe they make many valuable contributions while 26 percent say corporations are destructive to society according to MyersBizNet research Of those who believe corporations in general are destructive most judge Internet companies Google Facebook Apple Amazon and Twitter by a different standard Threequarters of those with negative attitudes toward corporations believe these large Internet companies should NOT be judged by the same standards as other corporations and they do not subject them to the same negative prejudgmentsThis was evident in the online uprising against the Stop Online Piracy Act SOPA and Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property Act PIPA in early 2012 Congressional efforts to enact laws that would curtail online piracy and copyright infringement were supported by most leading entertainment companies and had broad bipartisan support in Congress That support collapsed when Google Facebook Reddit Wikipedia and other sites protested and activated their user bases to speak out against the laws Google alone generated seven million petition signatures in one day and Wikipedia went black for a day of protestMembers of the Hooked Up Generation love interacting with one another over social platforms and they are determined to do whatever it takes to ensure that their favorite sites remain open Each day millions of students take advantage of free online sites but are aware of the legal consequences of piracy Andy Jensen a senior at California State University considered taking his YouTube videos down if one or both of the bills passed quotI heard that you could get in trouble just for using the wrong background music or even having a TV show playing in the background of your YouTube video I39m a poor college student and really can39t afford to pay whatever exorbitant fine they choose to slap on mequot To help with the cause Andy signed an antiSOPA petition and then posted the link to the petition on his Facebook wall so that friends could sign it as wellLike Andy thousands of college students alerted their friends to SOPA and PIPA either by linking to petitions or blacking out portions of their Facebook pages Although there39s little clarity about the actual legal consequences that concern Andy a number of students took the protest effort a step further by asking their college administrators to black out official university websites Colleges such as Syracuse University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT listened to concerned students and obliged their website blackout requests University officials at MIT claimed that the passing of SOPA and PIPA would result in large sections of the university39s official website being shut down They were especially concerned about online students who access most of their lectures and assignments over the MIT website The concern was that much of this content would be liable under SOPAWithin a week the acts had gone from almost certain passage to a very public and ignominious defeat When it came to established corporate and political forces against leading digital sites the Internet proved a far more trusted and powerful force Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid responded to the protests with an indefinite suspension of the SOPAPIPA vote Support for these bills remains strong in both the Senate and the House but representatives have demonstrated a willingness to step back and consider changes This development represents a major success for college students and other protesters who have worked so hard to safeguard the online freedom of expression they currently enjoyThe antiSOPA protests provide tangible proof of the importance of social networking to today39s college students Most students view social media as highly enriching and are willing to fight to ensure that it remains available in the future They enjoy the many opportunities provided by Facebook Twitter YouTube Tumblr and dozens of other social networking sites And if the millions of Tweets Facebook status updates and YouTube videos concerning social justice movements such as quotOccupy Wall Streetquot and quotStop American Censorshipquot are any indication students are making full use of social media toolsAs far as college students are concerned social media and social justice are both here to stay and the powerful influence of the leading Internetbased companies in defining and advancing social causes is a direct result of the trust the Hooked Up Gen has in themConsumer TrustConsumer trust is a huge asset and advantage for these companies as they plan their marketing and strategic business decisions It39s a dualedged sword though Trust can be quickly eroded when corporate decisions are made that run counter to the standards and expectations of these same consumers For example Yahoo39s distinctive position with young people is eroding as the site struggles internally and externally with its identity focus purpose and core marketing messageAchieving and maintaining trust among Internet Pioneers will yield not only financial rewards but enormous competitive advantage political clout and social influencePrivacy is one of the key ways this advantage may be manifested Because Facebook has continued to serve its core collegeage audience even as it has expanded across all demographics and to a global user base this audience will continue to serve Facebook and support the company39s somewhat confrontational approach to privacy issues Facebook alone is positioned to defend society against almost certain restrictive governmental privacy controls Internet Natives are likely to be the most active voices against these controls but if not for their trust in Facebook they might be advocates of greater privacy regulationquotPoliticians regulators and advocacy groups do not understand privacy They do not understand how sophisticated privacy management is or how complicated the technology controls are Facebook built into its platform most of the privacy settings and controls that advocacy groups and regulators argued for Once we built and implemented them the same advocacy groups perceived them as too difficult for consumers to usequot Paul AdamsExFacebookIt seems inevitable that some politicians will identify personal privacy as an opportune political hot potato and again launch a campaign to impose greater Internet privacy controls If sites are heavily regulated with privacy controls a great opportunity to bring people together with other people and businesses based on their expressed interests needs and desires could be missed Political opportunism could in the short term derail many of the most promising emerging opportunities of the InternetThe current controls all selfimposed are reasonably extensive but Adams is quotworried that every single action will require optin authorization The web could become unusable if there is a popup every time you click with terms and conditions you have to approvequotUnder the current selfregulations users provide a onetime authorization and can rescind that approval Adams argues that Facebook users are very sophisticated in their understanding of privacy issues and their rights According to our study 93 percent of Internet Pioneers express concern about how much personal information they share online and are sufficiently sophisticated to protect themselves quotThey do care about privacy and consequencesquot confirms AdamsquotThey understand privacy and have studied it carefully They understand that applying aggressive privacy controls can isolate you from your friends They are sophisticated in their use of privacy tools and understand how to post to selected friends or parents Teens realize the benefits of sharing with more people the replies they might get the social feedback they get Even young kids understand that 39liking39 is in their control and has meaning and value that changes with different uses People are focused and deliberate about who they friend and how they interact with each friendquot Paul AdamsExFacebookEvan Schweitzer a college freshman from New York City remembers quotin the beginning of Facebook I bought into being friends with everybody Back then it was cool to have 5000 friends Now it39s not so cool It39s huge but it is invading and I like having my privacyquotFacebook CommunitiesOlder Internet users are according to several studies actually less concerned about privacy than Internet Pioneers and they are also less competent to manage the privacy settings that sites like Facebook and Google provide quotA lot of good can come from people opening up and sharingquot Adams believesThere have been privacy fears and backlash dating back to the introduction of the printing press and even the alphabet and the written word if we can go back that far It is reasonable to believe that people were concerned about maintaining the privacy of their stories when the first scribe began writing those stories down If something could be written down it could be held against you With the advent of the printing press the printed word distributed to many was a clear invasion of a person39s right to control to whom how and when he delivered his messagePrivacy concerns are not new but Adams believes we are returning to a time not unlike when people lived in villages and communities of 150 to 200 people and everyone knew each other39s business quotIt was in each other39s nature to share and be openquot he points out Social networks are enabling people to identify and communicate with small groups that they identify and controlInternet Natives39 Relationship with FacebookThe average Facebook user according to Facebook research has an average of six groups with 10 to 15 members eachamp8211amp8211family friends from activities school past jobs and schools their community etc The Hooked Up Generation born 19911995 tend to have more than six discreet groups and more people in each of those groups More than 90 percent of the Hooked Up Gen today are on Facebook with an average 415 quotfriendsquot each compared to the average 150 friends among the total Facebook user base More than 20 percent have 500plus friends and only 4 percent have fewer than 50 friendsThe most active Hooked Up Gen Facebook users with 500plus friends are more concentrated among females and BlackAfrican Americans they are less concentrated in California but otherwise evenly dispersed throughout the rest of the country 71 percent of Internet Pioneer Facebook users say they personally know at least 90 percent of their Facebook friends and only 5 percent personally know less than onethird of their friends This runs counter to data on average social network users collected by Facebook That research says Adams suggests that the average person can manage only about 150 friends quotOnce you are over 150 you forget the names of your friends and even how you know themquot he saysInternet Natives with an average of more than 400 friends fall into a group that Adams believes will be early adapters of the tools being developed for curating and managing large circles of friendsProduct development at Facebook Google Plus and other social networks is focusing on helping their users manage and organize communications with independent groups of friends Circles and communities will become much more important as people separate out groups of friends who don39t know each other and may have different interests People want to communicate differently with friends work colleagues and families It doesn39t work to converge these disparate groups in a single blended online worldAs Facebook members age it39s inevitable that the size of their networks will grow as they maintain connections with people who become less involved in their daytoday lives It39s not human nature to quotunfriendquot those with whom they have had a previous relationship as Facebook becomes the only resource available to maintain all those contacts Social networks will therefore grow over time beyond the 150 average and Internet Pioneers39 social networks will quickly exceed five hundred and more They will have a network of people that is too big to remember and deal with so a priority for them will be curation tools and database management resources They will seek out better ways to direct their communications to smaller discreet groups and to manage different messages for different groups of friendsA strategic priority for Facebook is to maintain a balance between user demands for greater use of personal information and advocacy groups39 demands for greater privacy controls that restrict use of this informationFacebook began its extraordinary sprint to the top echelons of digital native companies by targeting college students and it continues to achieve its greatest success with this group many of whom now consider Facebook to be the single most important resource for their communications needsquotI totally understand the arguments against Facebook but I have friends all over the world from theater camp If not for Facebook how would I stay in touch with them It39s a pretty big deal It39s easy to find out what people are doing I don39t have to put a lot of effort into knowing what39s going on with my friends because it pops upquot Laura Schwartz18yearold studentManhattanAs the now popular lore goes Facebook was created in a college dormitory While the movie The Social Network dramatized the story of Mark Zuckerberg and thefacebook Facebook is still appealing to college students for many of the reasons that Zuckerberg originally imagined It is the best social network because Facebook resembles real life if for no other reason than because so many people are on it Students communicate on it as if they were in a cafeteria and share pictures and exist in a sort of dual universe in which it sometimes seems that if something doesn39t happen on Facebook it39s not real Even those students who may not prefer it to other social networks or who may not be active on any social network are on Facebook simply because everyone else is It is selfperpetuating And everyone is on itFacebook remains a place for students to gather and socialize and share and it remains an integral part of college life Facebook39s utility and universality has allowed it to evolve into a tool for information gathering and sharing Colleges are even using Facebook to recruit students To stay relevant Facebook is constantly looking to add features and functionality to improve the user experience Facebook has expanded far beyond its college roots but the DNA of the company as a social network bringing students closer together remains Facebook is constantly updating its user interface and has expanded it to incorporate a Timeline feature that retains every update photo shared experience and all other activities users include in their Facebook profiles And Facebook has adapted to an increasingly mobile generationquotThese days it39s about reaching students where they areamp8211amp8211which is mostly but not always on their cell phones or laptopsquot wrote Bruce Horovitz in USA Today Facebook is still in college dormitories but it has evolved to travel with the student as part of everyday life The company works hard to remain useful and universal in an everchanging and hypercompetitive world So far it39s workingGoogle and the Privacy ConundrumGoogle is used every day by even more people than Facebook and Google is an embedded part of the basic daily language of people around the world Google through its multiple technology platforms has access to and stores an extraordinary wealth of information and insight into the daily lives of its usersIn March 2012 Google consolidated its privacy policies for sixty Google products and services into one On the surface this appears to be a consumerfriendly act intended to simplify the cumbersome process of downloading and reading privacy policies The full Google Privacy Policy is published in the addendum for your own easy reference and as a capsule for comparison as it changes over time Google is trusted by its users to protect them and protect their interestsBut technology guru and blogger Shelly Palmer expressed serious concern about the consolidated privacy policyquotI don39t think any single thought about the aggregation of data or the use of technology has ever made me as uncomfortable as this announcement On its best day with every ounce of technology the US government could muster it could not know a fraction as much about any of us as Google does now But now is not what I39m worried about I39m not even worried about this decade Just imagine a database that could automatically determine what you are most likely going to have for dinner after your bowling league Tuesday night where you are going to have it who it will be with whether you are feeling good or have a cold if you and your wife are fighting how your day was at work what you are thinking about buying who is helping you with your decisions about it what chronic illnesses you are dealing with what meds you are on etc etc etc And this isn39t even the scary stuffquot Shelly PalmerMediaBizBloggerscom httpwwwmediabizbloggerscomshellypalmerreportGoogleSkynetYikesShellyPalmerhtmlWhat scares Palmer is the quotexistence of yetuninvented ways to manipulate data for good and inadvertently for bad I39m worried about the good intentions that pave the road to hellquot he exclaimsThe debates over privacy protection reflect a conundrumamp8211amp8211how can data best be protected when more and more information that has always been personal and private is voluntarily shared on platforms that are fundamentally public How can consumers best understand the implications of sharing their data and clicking quotI Agreequot when they haven39t even read the privacy policies to which they are agreeing Will companies like Facebook and Google use and misuse the trust that Internet Pioneers have placed in them and will that trust erode as a result If trust is misused and privacy rights are reinforced and regulated will the value of these platforms and others be diminishedFew issues are more critical for the future of the Internet than privacy Facebook and Google will be the dominant forces in advancing the case for access to consumer information and limited consumer control over that information We now know from SOPA and PIPA that the forces of government and other large corporations are helpless by comparison Whether Google and Facebook respect and honor the trust their users have placed in them will determine whether Palmer39s fear is wellplaced or overstatedChaoter 22 Open vs Closed Apple Closes the Loopamp160

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