Does Privacy Exist on the Web Anymore?
Earlier this week, I wanted to write about Facebook’s new Google index and didn’t get a chance. Then I heard about the Danah Boyd/Scoble discussion. Since I can’t go more than a week without posting about my favorite social utility, here goes.
I’m with Boyd here. Facebook and Myspace are constantly compared, but the two operate from completely different philosophies. Facebook was started so that college students at Harvard could meet each other–meaning you were likely to friend people you already had a greater chance of meeting. MySpace was designed as a way for musicians could promote their work. The basis of MySpace is self-promotion while Facebook helped your social life. Two completely different things.
I whole-heartedly joined Facebook because of the privacy settings. I loved that I could only friend people from my university. It was small and not intrusive. Then it went global. Then we got mini-feeds that kept tabs on everything your friends did. Then Facebook opened up to everyone without an edu address. It was only a matter of time until your profile could be opened to search engines.
I understand both arguments for and against the walled garden. As a professional communicator, I spend a lot of time trying to figure out a way to use the data on Facebook profiles. There’s so much targeted information. It’s a gold mine for marketers.
Then I approach it as a user. I’ve written about my struggle to accept Facebook as a professional tool extensively here. It started out as a way for me to stay in touch with my college friends and gradually morphed into a professional networking tool. Perhaps it’s because I’m in a city, but people are now using Facebook profiles as business cards. It’s hard to direct people to your Facebook profile when college friends are posting old sorority pictures and tagging you (Nothing scandalous. Just pictures that I’d prefer to die on someone’s old hardrive). I’ve had discussions with friends back home, and the progression of Facebook hasn’t nearly reached the level of penetration that Facebook has in DC. For example, yesterday I was at Ebenezer’s, my favorite DC coffeehouse. As I walked around, I couldn’t help but notice almost every person using a laptop in the busy shop was surfing Facebook. If you aren’t on Facebook in DC, you simply don’t exist. If you’re not in an urban area, Facebook is soley recreational.
Privacy is also a concern. I’m not the only woman out there who’s been Facebook stalked and had very scary people following my blog. Perhaps I’ve watched too many Lifetime movies, but there’s a dangerous side of the web. This is a discussion that I’ve had with my female blogging friends, so I’m not alone in being wary of complete transparency. I applaud Facebook for warning me ahead of time about the change, so that I could alter the settings on my profile. However, as Boyd points out, how many people are going to take the time to do that? There have already been too many crimes committed from information on MySpace profiles. How long until there’s the first Facebook murder? Judging by the information in my mini-feed, not many people adjust their privacy settings or use the limited profile.
Usually, I’m cheering on the transparency factor in web communicaton, but how far is it going to go? The wall between personal and professional lives has already been torn down. This is happening so quickly that I sometimes wonder if the 2.0 bubble will burst, and we’ll see a backlash of returning to complete privacy and an anonymous web.
There’s also a debate about the cool factor of Facebook to the college crowd. Since Facebook went around the early adopter pattern with college students using it before techies, there’s an interesting breakdown. The luster has worn off for most college students and recent grads while the tech crowd is still mesmerized by this flashy toy. Thus the question–will Facebook continue to grow?
I theorize that it will. Facebook is still an ingenious set up. We’re in the early days of successful social networking, and I believe it will parallel the Internet in the late nineties. Remember when you signed on AOL and were excited to get two or three e-mails? E-mail was a novelty that quickly entrenched it’s way into our lives. Now, e-mail is a burden that people try to escape. Facebook and it’s offspring will likely work their way into society in a similar pattern. Younger users may not be as excited about Facebook as they were a few years ago, but the utility has become a part of their everyday lives.
