How do we stop a privacy 9-11 in social media?
Micro-bots attacking surveillance cameras are seen as a growing threat. Photo by Matt Biddulph.
Yesterday I listed privacy as one of three problems that will define the next five years of social media. In his post, A Privacy 9-11 Could Derail Social, Steve Rubel describes the threat to social media's (commercial) success.
Anyone in security will tell you that a good defense is only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Yet, no matter how hardened our technological defenses are, it's my bet that somewhere someone will suffer a major privacy leak that impacts millions, sends shock waves through our system and makes us feel less secure than we did before. Such an event could slow interest in social networking and derail its marketing potential.
He points to design decisions by the big platforms (Amazon, Facebook etc.) that are aimed at improving things, and calls on marketers, government and the media to pull their weight.
How might marketers contribute? An immediate thought is inspired by the way that it has become accepted that opt-in rather than opt-out is the right way to do email marketing: must marketers now develop and adopt social permission models? For example, I need to explicitly opt-in to let you tell that hot new Facebook game to invite me to a game. Of course marketers might see that as stopping them creating a viral hit but, as with email marketing, accepted practices do change.
A seemingly small step, but given the growing popularity of social gaming one that potentially changes behavioural norms.
