Privacy Becomes Competitive for Search Companies

Time and again, surveys have shown that privacy is a major concern of users of digital media.  That’s no surprise, as we all continue to pour more and more personal information into search engines, social networking sites and on-line shopping services.  Privacy will be one of the major competitive issues for media enterprises in the coming years – far more important than it is already. 

Yes, there’s money to be made from controlling personal information on millions of people.   But consumers are also wary of companies that abuse the privilege, and disaster may await any company that is not careful.  It’s no longer enough for companies to have a privacy policy (written largely by lawyers), or for them to simply assure users that their privacy is “respected”. This is especially true as the online giants undergo consolidation – Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick has prompted similar acquisitions by Yahoo!, Microsoft, AOL and the WPP Group ad agency.

So it’s reassuring to read that the search companies in particular are waking up and maybe (just maybe) trying to get ahead of the curve.  The Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), a policy group based in Washington, D.C., reports that Internet search companies are beginning to compete aggressively to offer stronger privacy protection, including steps “to delete old user data, strip the personally identifiable information out of stored search records, and, in one case, give users the option to have all of their search records deleted.”

CDT tracks the efforts of the various companies in a research report and concludes:

“That Internet companies are beginning to compete to provide better and more extensive privacy protections is great news for users, who will hopefully be faced with an ever-widening array of choices in how they manage and control the information they share over the Internet. Competitive, market-driven privacy solutions are a key component to a multi-pronged effort to bring privacy standards up to date with modern technology. If properly coupled with federal consumer privacy legislation and aggressive user education, these initiatives should begin to tip control over personal data back where it belongs -- in the hands of users”.

CNET News.com has conducted a similar survey.  

Unfortunately, all the protections in the world may not be enough to protect people from themselves.  The IT security firm Sophos has released the results of an experiment in which it set up a fabricated Facebook profile, then sent out 200 friend requests to see how many people would respond.  The results:

87 of the 200 Facebook users contacted responded
41% of respondents leaked personal information
72% of respondents divulged one or more email addresses
84% of respondents listed their full date of birth
87% of respondents provided details about their education or workplace 78% of respondents listed their current address or location
23% of respondents listed their current phone number
26% of respondents provided their instant messaging screenname

Various reports suggested that the Sophos experiment showed that Facebook users were “lax” on security.  Our favorite was the headline on John Paczkowskli’s Daily Digital blog: “Survey: 41% of Facebook Users Total IDiots.”