Facebook Privacy

Privacy is one of the biggest issues on facebook these days with everyone talking about how personal information is too public because of facebook. I believe that this is really just media rumblings and although facebook can be a threat, it is not facebook's privacy settings that people should be afraid of. The level of information that individuals upload and share are way more damaging then the personal information that facebook could ever attain. Take this recent facebook episode:

“Katie” built a private top ten list of the 10 "hottest" guys at school and what she would like to do to them/have them do to her. She gave herself a deadline of April 2010 to achieve these sexual feats with these 10 guys and continually updated the list and made notes as she “crossed one off” her list. In a completely separate event, she decided to tattle tale on her brother “Chris” for hiding a six pack of beer in his room. “Chris” was caught by their parents and grounded for three months. To get revenge, “Chris” stole “Katie’s” list, scanned it and uploaded it to facebook. He then "tagged" the 10 guys at “Katie’s” school who she had put on her list and named the album “Karma’s a bitch”.
Here’s the note and the subsequent facebook comments, please read only if you can handle teen sexuality as “Katie’s” list is a little explicit. The comments are quite funny though.

Another couple of examples:

The key message of these facebook interactions is that the user generated comment that is shared in the public sphere on purpose are way more damaging then the private information that facebook maintains. Individuals will always be way more cavalier with the personal information that they share then what facebook collects. Facebook will continue to thrive and grow as a communications media. It’s an outlet where no one person or brand can control what is being posted or what the fallout or virality of a post will be. However, Facebook is here to stay and it’s ramifications need to be considered in all future brand or acquisition campaigns, online or not.

Sean Diamond