Are social advertising and marketing the end of privacy?

Posted on November 10, 2008 by Tom

All social networks have one thing in common, they (knowingly or unknowingly) collect information about their users. This information can be used to target advertisements to a more susceptible target demographic.

First of all, this isn’t something new. People act like this is the most invasive marketers have ever been, but it has been a technology waiting to happen. Magazines, television programs,… they all have a specific target demographic to make it easier for companies to focus their advertising efforts. This was a big change because it created a possibility to broadcast your message from one-to-many to one-to-few.

So what do people hate about giving up their ‘privacy’? Consumers hate the fact that companies think for them, it gives them the idea that their freedom of choice is being predestined. That they don’t have any say in the matter, that they have lost control. But what is privacy? Most information shared online isn’t anything you wouldn’t share in real life with friends or family. It’s true though that this information can be accessed by people you don’t know and it’s true that most people still aren’t aware that online, everybody’s listening. But that doesn’t mean we have to fight companies privacy policies. We have to be taught they exist, what they mean and how we have to act online. As always, we all like the pro’s about something new, but don’t want the con’s. If you want to build meaningfull relationships, that means you have to share information. If you want to do this on a global scale, than you have to be aware that this information can be viewed not only by your friends and yourself. So you have the choice where you draw the line, what information you want to share. That’s your responsibility, it’s not the responsibility of the companies to do this for you, they just provide the tools to make social networking possible and god forbid if they want to make a profit.

Ofcourse a lot of companies should communicate their privacy policies more clearly to the end-user. That’s their responsibility and maybe one that’ll become more clear when people stop threatening with all kind of litigation when they feel their privacy has been violated.

I’m pretty open-minded about privacy policies, but what about you? Do you knowingly don’t put information online because you feel your privacy being violated?

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You may want to read:

• Do we take responsibility?
• Kevin Kelly’s web 10.0
• How social media thrives in times of crisis