Jan
25
Privacy in Social Media
January 25, 2010 | 6 Comments
We have seen concerns in the media about social networking and Facebook in particular has come under fire. In this article I raise quite a few questions and am really keen to hear others views on this.
From what I have seen some people are really concerned about privacy (I am in that camp) and some people don’t seem to worry too much. In my article Facebook for business has me scratching my head, I mentioned that I have used Facebook for years, but purely to keep in touch with family and friends all around the world.
Every time someone sends me a request on Facebook it seems to require some sort of application. On the install application page you have to give that application access to almost everything including your photo’s to install it. I have two children and I hate the idea of “whoever” is behind these applications having access to photo’s of my children and therefore, decline every request that requires an application. However, my family who sometimes have pictures of my children install every other application and I have no control over this. Am I being overly protective – maybe?
My big question is “How much should we reveal about ourselves online?”
Should we be totally open and reveal every aspect of ourselves or reveal as much as is relevant? I think there is a fine balance here. Online people can be less trusting therefore you need to be open and honest and may need to give a lot more about yourself than in person. Could this actually be detrimental for example if you are a job seeker?
Is privacy really a farce and there is no such thing? Is it a word that gives us a false sense of security? Social Networks have really changed the amount of personal information that is online. It seems that many super Internet marketers or online socialites reveal much about their personal life. Is this the price you need to pay for that success? Is it important to be able to form a more personal relationship with people who are connected to you or follow you?
How much do you reveal about yourself? Do you go all the way, do you have a personal policy or do you keep part of yourself private? I would love to know what others are doing and think in this respect.
No related posts.
6 Comments so far
Aqua Pebble Feed
LinkedIn
If you want to see my LinkedIn profile, click on this button:
Lee-Ann:
You are asking the right questions. My fear is that 99.9% of the public are not asking these questions at all. They are taking whatever they are given and not thinking about it. And there is a LOT to think about!
I write about some of these issues in my blog as well:
http://thetaptaptap.wordpress.com/2010/01/22/pardon-me%E2%80%A6your-wall-is-showing/
Thanks for your post!
- John
Lee-Ann,
Absolutely. Just because everybody can be connected doesn’t mean that we want to be. I keep my facebook fairly private. There’s a limit to how much of myself I want out there.
- Greg
I think a lot of people are starting to get concerned about privacy. I give talks on social media for business and in fact have just finished a presentation I am giving to some members of the Réseau des femmes d’affaires de Québec next month on using social media securely.
One of the lawyers at our firm (TDS) who has a background in technology law and privacy matters is doing a presentation next month on this very topic to members of the Canadian Marketing Association (Manitoba Chapter).
http://www.cmamanitoba.com/
Mark
Hi RJ
That is a scary story. And that is what worries me. We can never take a “that won’t happen to me” attitude.
I agree I think we need to be careful about what we share about our personal and private lives, but be open with our professional lives, in that we share views, help others, make contacts and do business.
That is interesting. I never worried too much about Linkedin because it was more business orientated and more limited in the information available. I know you can hide your contacts. In your case more privacy is a real concern and I certainly believe privacy should be a higher priority on their list.
Hi Lee-Ann,
I’ve had the same concerns as you for a while now, when I first started using social networks I’m ashamed to admit that privacy didn’t even occur to me! I was so swept up in the whole idea the seriousness was lost under all the enthusiasm. I have since learnt the hard way though, having kept a fairly open profile I was, unbeknown to me, allowing someone I knew to ‘cyber-stalk’ me, it was only when I started receiving abusive messages mentioning my where-abouts that I started to really take stock. Following on from a court injunction and many months of worry, I now make sure my profile is completely private and am very selective about who I add or accept as friends, and deny all applications.
Whilst I agree that this has restricted my use of the network, I also don’t feel like I’ve lost anything by doing it, I consider my facebook account to be an additional means to stay in touch with my friends and share experiences with the people I know. I don’t use it for business networking purposes.
I do however use LinkedIn for networking, in fact I would say I spend more time on LinkedIn than I do facebook. I recently started receiving notifications through Linkedin that the same chap I mentioned earlier was now using this network — I’m assuming I was notified because his email address was in my address book. Instantly the panic started to rise, him having access to my business contacts was the last thing I wanted! I’d never even looked into the privacy settings of LinkedIn before but when I finally did I discovered… there are none! Or very, very few, I couldn’t for example, block this guy from seeing my profile. I contacted LinkedIn to see if blocking him would be possible and the answer was no, but that they could review his account, the guy hasn’t done anything – yet, though so he hasn’t violated any policies. Now I’m faced with the choice do I abandon my profile that has helped me professionally a huge amount, or do I run the risk and hope for the best?
So, in answer to your question I think it’s very unwise to reveal the ‘whole’ you on a social network, they each serve different purposes – Facebook is more for friends, so make it private and be selective who you allow in, and LinkedIn is for business, stick to content you wouldn’t mind your clients seeing and all should be ok.