Facebook privacy concerns

Facebook users are wise to the dangers of a cavalier attitude to privacy for the sake of exhibitionism. Many recount stories -– some apocryphal -– of Orwellian employers and jealous partners combing profiles for drunken Christmas party photos and potentially incriminating messages.

But while many Facebook users still foreswear privacy for the sake of convenience or entertainment, they are less happy for Facebook to seek to exploit and commercialise this indiscretion.  

Facebook recently was forced to make an embarrassing u-turn, jettisoning a tool known as Beacon, which tracked users' purchases and reported them to their 'friends'.  It seems that the opportunity to allow advertisers to market their wares relatively cheaply to a captive -- and potentially huge audience -- was just too tempting.

Search giant Google has also seen its reputation damaged because of privacy concerns relating to the tracking of searches and e-mail messages and the subsequent tailoring of advertising. The furore led one of its competitors, Ask.com, to launch a tool allowing users immediately to delete searches stored on its servers.

Concerns over Beacon probably will be quickly forgotten, though such an initiative is unlikely to be re-launched anytime soon.  The faux pas is also unlikely seriously to damage Facebook commercially. Indeed, the myriad opportunities for 'viral' marketing on Facebook mean it will remain attractive to advertisers, despite concerns that they may occasionally find themselves unwittingly associated with distasteful causes (several advertisers recently cancelled spots on Facebook because these had appeared on profiles supporting the extreme right British National Party). 

However, the Beacon episode is a salutary tale for Facebook's young founder and management. Facebook and other social networking sites will now take pains not to be seen to be benefiting commercially from personal information about users.

This raises questions about the future of user-generated internet content, and more specifically social networking websites.  Over the next few years, these are likely to mature as a genre. Users are likely to become more aware of privacy concerns and risks, and alter their user preferences and the types of content they post. 

They may well become a means for communication, eventually supplanting webmail products at least for personal communication, and lose the potential for activism and innovation that they currently enjoy.