Facebook’s next big privacy change is still coming

Have you seen the warning signs?

We’re all on Facebook and seemingly can’t give it up, but should we?

In 2013 there have been some big changes in the way the social network handles its users' privacy.

The latest round of Facebook changes had a huge impact on teens and their online privacy. 

You might recall that earlier in October Facebook caused a stir by changing settings so that teens could make themselves discoverable on the platform.

In an Oct. 16 Los Angeles Times piece Facebook loosens privacy policy on teens' posts Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, called on federal regulators to step in and protect teen privacy.

"To parents and teens, Facebook is claiming they are giving them more options to protect their privacy. But in reality, they are making a teen's information more accessible, now that they have the option to post publicly," Chester said, adding: "Today's announcement actually removes a safeguard that teens currently have."

Yes, Facebook says one thing but in reality seems to do another.

In an excellent piece on Bloomberg.com by Evan Selinger (a colleague at RIT) and Woodrow Hartzog Why Is Facebook Putting Teens at Risk? they argue that "… the most important reason Facebook shouldn’t have introduced this change is that teens need opportunities to fail safely. They must be allowed to experiment -- to make mistakes and to learn from them."

"As parents, our job is to encourage them to explore ideas, experiences and even personas," Selinger and Herzog say. "Responsible companies will do their part by offering teens technologies that enhance personal development and strive for minimal risk."

And the recent teen privacy changes come on top of Facebook’s earlier introduction of Graph Search (March, 2013).

Megan Marrs, in a well-written post Facebook Graph Search & Privacy Concerns: Should You Be Worried?” says Graph Search is “Now with more stalking power!” She describes how once anything that might have embarrassed you on Facebook was, over time, buried which was sometimes referred to as "privacy by obscurity." But now Graph Search means almost anyone can find anything at any time. Should you be worried? Her answer is a resounding “Yes!”

But wait, there’s more.

Facebook has a proposal in front of the Federal Trade Commission that would make your privacy even more of a thing of the past.

Vindu Goel, writing in the The New York Times’ Technology page in a piece called Facebook Eases Privacy Rules for Teenagers, notes that the Federal Trade Commission is conducting an inquiry into other proposed changes to FB’s privacy policies.

Goel notes: "Those policies would give Facebook automatic permission to take a user’s post, including a post made by a teenager, and turn it into an advertisement broadcast to anyone who could have seen the original post."

Facebook, it seems, is bent on erasing personal privacy in every corner of its network.

What can you do?

To argue for protecting children online you can contribute to the comments section of two proposals made to the Federal Trade Commission under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule at FTC Extends Public Comment Deadlines on Two COPPA Proposals -- there is a Nov. 4 deadline.

So what do you think? Is there any expectation of privacy on social networks such as Facebook? Or should people continue to use FB and other social media knowing that sooner rather than later they will not be able hide anything?

Possibly related posts:
9 Ways to Maintain (Some) Privacy on Social Media, the Web
(From 2012) At the IPO: 5 Warning Signs of Facebook’s future

9 Ways to Maintain (Some) Privacy on Social Media, the Web

Online privacy can be hard to maintain

Privacy and social media might seem to make odd bedfellows and recent moves by some of the biggest online companies might make you think any privacy on social networks and the Internet is impossible.

This month alone: Facebook has removed another privacy setting and Google is alerting users to a change in its terms and conditions that allows your image and name to appear in Google ads. This, in October, the month Homeland Security has declared National Cyber Security Awareness Month. Not to mention the ongoing concerns about mass surveillance of online activities carried out by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) and its international partners. All the while, corporations are eagerly tracking data regarding your browsing habits and purchasing preferences.

So what, dear Web Wanderer, can you do to protect some shreds of your privacy on social media and elsewhere on the Internet?

9 Ways to maintain (Some) Privacy

1. Sign in and out of your online accounts: Yes, it’s convenient to have a computer remember passwords and other login details, but you’re playing with fire. At the most basic level it means anyone can sit at your computer and "be you" on your networks. At a more sophisticated level anyone who does hack into your computer now has access to your accounts. So, logout when you’re done and log back in each time …

2. Be a "Friends Only" kind of Facebook user: Understanding your FB settings may take 30 minutes one day, but it will be the best half hour you spend on yourself on the social network. Remember that anything other than the "Friends Only" setting means people you don’t know can see and share a lot about you. You also should be aware by now, but some apparently are not, that Facebook’s default is to set all of your privacy settings to "public."

3. Use a password on your devices: If you’re not using a password to get into your smartphone or laptop etc. that’s the equivalent of leaving your apartment or car unlocked. Think about the treasure trove of personal information now stored on those devices. Maybe, just maybe, someone finding your device won’t take advantage, but maybe not.

4. Turn on 2-step Authentication in Gmail: This means that in order for your Gmail account to be accessed from a new device, a person needs a code that's texted to your cellphone. So, even if someone gets your password somehow, they won't be able to use it to sign into your account from a strange computer.

5. Encrypt everything: Whole-disk encryption of computers isn't a bad idea. If your laptop is lost or stolen, it's nearly impossible for anyone else to get into your data without your password. The latest versions of Apple's iOS automatically encrypt the entire smartphone or tablet if a passcode is enabled. On Android devices, encryption is an easy option in the Settings menu.

6. Clear your browser history and cookies regularly: Consider changing your browser settings so that the cache is automatically cleared every session. Go to the Privacy setting in your Browser’s Options and tell it to "never remember your history." This will reduce the amount you’re tracked online, although a recent New York Times story – Selling Secrets of Phone Users to Advertisers – shows that the growing field of anonymous data tracking may eventually make this a moot point.

7. Review the apps that have access to your social media accounts: Regularly review which applications have access to your social media accounts. Revoke access for applications you no longer use. In future: make sure applications you download use social media carefully. If they ask for your contacts and to post to your account don’t agree to this lightly.

8. Get an app that you can use to remotely wipe your device if it is stolen or lost: Some of these apps can show where the thief took your phone and can erase all the data. All of them allow you to do this from a separate device.

9. Put a Google Alert on your name: Go to Google Alerts enter your name, and variations of your name, with quotation marks around each. Select how frequently you want alerts (daily is probably fine for most of us) and where you want them sent. It’s the easiest way to stay on top of what's being said about you online. Just be aware: it may only catch 85 to 90 percent of mentions and some alerts may take more than a day or two to get you. But it is free.

Other ideas:

Five ways to stop the NSA from spying on you (from the Washington Post) offers ways to thwart the agency's snooping.

Strategies People Use to be Less Visible Online is a story from the social media news aggregator Mashable. It finds that "64 Percent of American adults protect their online identities by clearing cookies and browser history" and has a useful chart listing all of the other tactics its survey respondents said they practiced.

In the future:

Imagine a small box sitting next to your computer that encrypts everything you do online. That’s the principle behind a device call the Don’t Snoop Me Bro Tunnel that I first read about recently on the Bit Rebels site. The DSMB will be (when it is available early next year) an out of the box plug-and-play technology that connects to your computer and claims to completely camouflage your online presence. The Bit Rebels story linked to here has a full description and demo video.

So, there you have a few ideas that might help you hang onto or gain back some shreds of privacy. Of course, the ultimate road to privacy is to stay off the web altogether and to erase all past history on the web … yeah, right! Like that is going to happen.

What do you think? Can you maintain some privacy and still engage on social media and the Internet?

UPDATE: Since writing this post another big change has hit if you are concerned about online and social privacy. The app Snapchat prided itself on having its messages disappear after a few seconds. But as of Oct. 14 a new app called SnapHack allows people to keep and retransmit messages from Snapchat. Read more at Business Insider - http://j.mp/SnapHack 

Possibly related posts:
10 Tips for Social Media Beginners
A New Online You

Have a social media wish list? This could help ...

What if there was a way to make a wish for a new feature in your favorite social network?

What if your wish is for a whole new social network to fill a gap in your life?

What if there was a way to take the best features of several social networks to make your own custom network?

You’d likely need a social media fairy godmother to make this happen and while that may seem like a fantasy there is a way to spread the word on your social media wishes … The Social Media Wish Factory.

The Wish Factory is a panel that I and two others are proposing for the SXSW Interactive event in Austin next year.

The idea behind The Social Media Wish Factory is that it would be a place where the panelists would kick off a discussion about new ideas for social media, but very quickly they’d get the audience involved too. If anyone is looking for new ideas for apps or new ways to leverage existing social networks this would be a panel to attend.

The panel might try to answer such questions as ….

Why can’t I sort my Linkedin connections into two, three or four levels of trust based on how well I know them? For example, there is a big difference between someone I once met at a conference and someone I worked with for 20 years.

Why isn’t there a simple way to bring all my social networks together to pay tribute to someone? For example, what can I do if a person I admire passes away and I want to send a message of condolence on all my networks or someone I know does something outstanding and I want to acknowledge that across all my social networks?

What one improvement of a major social platform would make it 100, or 1,000, percent better? For example, why can’t I set alerts on some updates and not others on my favorite social networks?

This is a just a small sampling of what will, I hope, be hundreds of questions and suggestions that spring from this session  at SXSW.

The two people I invited to be panelists are smart, renaissance thinkers about social media and have great ideas about what is still needed in social. They are:

Aaron Strout is  a 20+-year marketing veteran who specializes in the convergence of mobile, social and digital marketing. Aaron is Managing Director at W2O Group where he helps customers with social and mobile strategies. In addition, Aaron is on the advisory board of the Social Media Club and is co-author (with Mike Schneider) of Location-Based Marketing for Dummies.

Deirdre Breakenridge is the CEO at Pure Performance Communications and a veteran in PR and marketing. She has counseled senior level executives at companies such as Hershey’s, JVC, Kraft and Marketwired and is the author of five books (her most recent being Social Media and Public Relations: Eight New Practices for the PR Professional). Deirdre blogs about PR 2.0 strategies and is the co-founder of #PRStudChat, a dynamic Twitter discussion scheduled monthly for PR students, educators and PR pros.

So, there you have it: A panel discussing everything that still needs to be done with and by social media. Would you help such a panel by voting for it? I hope so.

To help make your social media dreams come true please take two minutes to vote here for the The Social Media Wish Factory.

You can also use the comments area here to leave suggestions for the discussion…. Thank you!

5 Trends in Social Media Impacting Business

The universe of social media affecting business

In response to a question about the "5 material trends you see shaping the future face of social media" I got to thinking: In 2013 what are those trends and fairly quickly I settled on…..

5 social media trends impacting business

• The rise of the visual social media
• Information comes from multiple channels, simultaneously
• ‘Humanized’ brands are a consumer expectation
• Big data and other privacy concerns
• Social status measuring is evolving

1. I see you …

Brands are quickly realizing that “words tell, but images sell.” The rapid rise of visual social media such as Pinterest, Instagram, and the teen photo sensation Snapchat in 2012 – dubbed by some as ‘The Year of the Social Image’ continues.

Already in 2013 Twitter has launched its micro-video service Vine and YouTube’s usage continues to rise rapidly and YouTube’s Battle with TV is already over.

2. We need more hands …

Americans are spending more and more time on mobile and other computing devices. According to the social media research company NM Incite Americans’ time on these devices went up 21 percent from 2011 to 2012 (the most-current data at the time of this writing). That number is expected to continue to grow by 20 percent or more each year.

Multi-channel information consumption is becoming the norm. From watching TV while also being on a tablet, smartphone or laptop – brands are realizing opportunities exist in being on multiple channels at the same time. As consumers move to multiscreen modes of media consumption, the advertising dollars will follow with well-managed multiscreen campaigns according to Spotlight on Multiscreen Video Advertising Convergence.

This has also led, for example, to social media being measured as part of a television show’s reach. For example in December, 2012, Nielsen, the TV ratings company, and Twitter announced a multi-year agreement to create the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating for the U.S. market. It will measure a metric "around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter" and is expected to become available, for the fall 2013 TV season.

3. Can brands and consumers co-exist in social?

Consumers are connecting with businesses and brands more and more. According to the Edison-Arbitron 2012 research report called The Social Habit the percentage of social networkers who follow brands online doubled from 2010 to 2012 from 16 percent to 33 percent. But at the same time a slight majority say they don’t want to be snooped on in social media.

Research from The Altimeter Group this year shows that 51 Percent of Consumers Don’t Want Brands Listening to Them on Social Media.

This adds to already complicated relationships between marketers and consumers on social media – summed up very well in the Consumers vs. Marketers – What Do We Really Want From Brands On Social Media?.

4. ‘Big Brother,’ big data and privacy worries

With so much time online consumers are increasingly concerned about the digital footprints they are leaving behind. For example, according to the Edison-Arbitron  The Social Habit report 56 percent of the 143 million Americans on Facebook are "very concerned" or "somewhat concerned" about the privacy of their personal information on FB. 

The issue is well-summarized by the Stanford Law Review in Privacy in the Age of Big Data which essentially concludes that "the growing ubiquity of data collection and the increasingly robust uses of data enabled by powerful processors and unlimited storage" are concerning and calls for "a model where the benefits of data for businesses and researchers are balanced against individual privacy rights."

5. How do you measure up socially?

Americans officially have the social media habit according to the Edison-Arbitron report The Social Habit which notes that approximately 58 million Americans (or 22 percent of the adult population) "visit social networks several times per day."

Brands are increasingly monitoring for social media mentions of themselves  and their industry and communities using tools such as Radian6 and others. 

Meanwhile the social media audit for brands is becoming an essential regular checkup (as described in 9 Ways to Measure Your Brand's Social Media Health).

In addition, tools for determining individual consumer’s social influence continue to get better, although most concede they have some way to go. These include: Klout, Kred and Peerindex.

So, what does all of this mean for businesses and brands? There are many, many questions still to be answered and the time may be coming where both consumers and brands need to reach a middle ground on what is good for both in social media.

What do you think?

Related posts
10 Experts Weigh In On Social Marketing
10 More Social Marketing Experts Offer Key Advice
5 Ways Brands are Tone-Deaf on Twitter

The mystery behind 15,000 new Pinterest followers

The Interesting graphics board

Let me be clear upfront: If you’re looking for a step-by-step guide to gaining 15,000 new followers on Pinterest in a very short time this is not the blog post for you.

My purpose, from a social media strategy perspective, is to solve a mystery.

If you have wondered why people connect on Pinterest or what attracts people to certain others or their particular boards on Pinterest then I hope my questions here will at the least get you thinking and/or provide some insight.

Some background

On April 11 I was a quiet Pinterest user. I had under a 1,000 people following my various Pinterest boards.

The boards are organized around the things I care about. The board New Zealand!, for example, is images of my home country and the board RIT is about the place I teach (and love) in Rochester, N.Y.

One board Interesting graphics was always my most popular and, as of April 11, in had 286 followers.

But on that day something happened. Starting a little after 9 a.m. EDT I started getting notifications from Pinterest that said, for example, "Sarah Jones and 49 others have started following your board Interesting graphics." 

These notifications began arriving regularly. Every 15 to 20 minutes. Within four days I was approaching 5,000 followers. Within a week it was just over 10,000. As of today (April 25) that board has 15,298 followers.

That’s an amazing 15,013 new followers in just 14 days.

Why is this happening?
For more than a week I have tried everything I know to discover why this might be happening.

• Is it because I posted an amazing infographic that people shared a lot? A search through that board for the past month of activity reveals no unusual volume of sharing.
• I Googled my name and the name of the board … nothing in the search results indicates anyone recommended the board. (That’s too bad because I would thank them.)
• I talked to experts in web marketing and analytics to see if there is any way to find the course of all this attention … and apparently there is not.
• I emailed the Pinterest Help Desk … and got this response: "Unfortunately, we’re a small team and we won't be able to respond to your email." 

So, what now?

I guess I’m hoping someone reading this can help solve the mystery.

Perhaps there are others who have had similar experiences.

Can you help? Please let me know in the Comments area – I would really appreciate it.