Facebook (Stupidly) Takes the Heat from Moveon, while Yahoo and Ebay laugh to the bank!
Los Angeles Internet Marketing •
December 13th, 2007
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So we all know about the Facebook Debacle with Beacon - and the horrible mistakes stupid 24 year olds make (We really do love you Mark Zuckerburg) it’s just that young kids shouldn’t be running $15 billion dollar businesses.
Moveon.org and the EFF have been decrying the privacy issues. As I’ve stated in a previous post, I think that behavioral targeting is inevitable and coming soon. In fact, I wasn’t happy that Mike Morgan from Tacoda was being apologetic about it.
So while Facebook is being killed for being aggressive about behavioral targeting, MSN openly includes demographic data in their search marketing, Yahoo has introduced smartads (Check out my paranoid post about the Yahoo Smartads “Conspiracy”), and now ebay’s got smartads too.
In short, poor Zuckerburg is being dissed for being “immature”, and experimental when he is simply upfront, while the bigger companies just do it and hide behind little “about” links (see below).
Ohh, Facebook is worse because they made such a radical change, and they didn’t have an opt-out there?
Check out ebay’s “Opt-out” box from smart-ads…
a little “about box that just has a popup with lots of text, and leads to yahoo’s optout program.
What rubs me the wrong way is not that people feel threatened by privacy, and start protests using facebook.
Neither does it bother me when companies take ballsy steps and test the waters with new technologies that may not be received positively.
It bothers me that the population is duped into thinking that they are changing the situation by stopping the dialogue with companies that are forward thinking - like facebook, and instead are hit with programs that they don’t even know affect them - like Yahoo Smart Ads.
It’s as if it would have been better for facebook to be much more discreet about their marketing programs and spring it on their users subtly - just like Yahoo is doing.
In fact, I think that’s what I am going to advise all companies. Let’s drop the Google motto of “Don’t be evil”, because being straight hurts you in the long run because of organizataions like Moveon and the EFF that selectively attack programs that are easy to point fingers at.
Guys, grow up, just stick to net neutrality, and let companies like facebook talk to consumers, and tell us what their vision is. Give them some options - guide facebook. Tell them your personal interpretation, and I’m sure it will be much more productive to the world.
Edit: Looking over the post… I’d like to clarify my message to non-profits like Moveon and the EFF. I think that having an open dialogue, discussing the options, the issues, and the opportunities would be much more useful than just protesting the part that is wrong.
I do appreciate that we have consumer activist groups, it’s a necessity to balance everything… but they are often just as polarized as the businesses they are protesting.
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Comments
Well if he is really feeling guilty then he should be given a second chance. Cause facebook is such a huge networking site now….it is the most regularly used networking site than any other social networking site. Its very cool & user friendly. Infact i read it somewhere that facebook can be accessed on mobile thru sms without internet, Gprs or Edge. Check this:
http://modazzle.com/cms/userLogin.html?channel=CM&camp=Facebook
I’ll avoid repeating my complaints about MoveOn, but I think you’ve misstated the Beacon issue to a certain extent. I think the point is that they import behavior from third-party sites that people expect to be secret or anonymous and publish it in Facebook News Feeds for all the world to see. Other networks, including the behavioral guys, take small amounts of public without identifying the user and using invisibly on sites where the user is largely or completely anonymous. It’s the complete inverse.
http://rafer.wirelessink.com/?p=90
Scott,
You are correct that the issue was about having the data shared. But Facebook did to do something about it - with their optouts, they just didn’t implement it correctly. That doesn’t excuse them. But it does piss me off with the attitude that many in the blogging world are taking towards facebook.
Although the way they shared the information was much more disconcerting, it also offers a fascinating alternative to behavioral targeting that allows the user to benefit from the data - not just deep-pocket advertisers.
In offline - and online media, the influencers are those that make their opinions heard loud and clear. People remember those people as “the xxx topic guy”. They go to these influencers for opinions, advice etc.
Influencers could be good journalists, politicians, consultants - or your local cuisine maven.
Some of those influenceres are more business savvy, and make money off of their value - either by selling their “audience” products / services / consulting, or providing advertisers a venue to targeted consumers in gatherings that they create.
But the truth is that everyone is an influencer. We all have our own knowledge and affinity for certain things. However, we never had the balls, the motivation or the know-how to share that knowledge with others.
We do share our opinions with friends - the movies that are good, the bars and clubs that are fun, the places to work and invest. We just don’t share them with enough people or loudly enough to be considered experts.
What I saw in the facebook beacon concept was the ability to automatically integrate what we like and dislike into our profile. Instead of having to manually type in the movies that were cool, or the cellphones that we liked, we could have it typed in automatically.
Is there benefit for advertisers? Of course! The products that were advertised would go viral alot faster.
Would it benefit consumers - in this implementation not so much… eventually though, consumers will use it to build their own authority, get advice from their friends - as if they asked for that opinion in a real conversation (”Yeah, that movie was awesome!”), and make new friendships based on those interests.
Contrast that with the behavioral targeting concept which allows marketers to gather more data for marketers - without allowing the benefit to seep down to consumers. That’s exactly what “old media†is – allowing only the people at the top to know and share data, and not your “average joeâ€.
People have this illusion that their activities are private. The truth is that if you buy your Triple XXX magazine, <a href=”http://aboutresultsmarketing.com/marketing_blog/2007/11/02/could-consumers-really-accept-behavioral-targeting/” rel=”nofollow”>you will be getting similar offers</a> from another company that bought the list with your name on it.
There are two main difference between data collection available now (list buying and credit scores) and what we want to do in social media.
1) On a personal level the data doesn’t get shared with people that are acquintances (close enough that you are embaressed about what they think, but not close enough that you are comfortable letting them know almost everything about you.)
2) On a commercial level, only the bigger companies have access to the data - and can monetize it.
Facebook Beacon was an effort to allow the consumer access / control to the information flowing from them, as well as allowing smaller businesses access to that information too.
Obviously, Facebook didn’t portray the vision the way I did… and nor did they implement it with the attention to consumer feeling that they should have. However, I think it was a worthy shot, and I give them a little credit.
I just wish that even though Facebook made a stupid mistake, that consumer privacy groups would realize that they aren’t going to get privacy… unless they like the corporate concept of privacy (the guys with big pockets know everything about you) and you don’t get to share/benefit from the knowledge of your own likes and dislikes.
If it’s social profiling vs. behavioral targeting, I really would rather social profiling, and I am hoping that groups like the EFF will focus on preserving our rights to own our own social profiling data - and not to keeping it away from ourselves just to give it to commercial organizations.
By the way, connectu has a great parody on facebook beacon at: <a href=”http://www.facebookbusinesssolutions.com” rel=”nofollow”>www.facebookbusinesssolutions.com</a>.
I and the CTO of one of the companies I am involved in launching almost got fooled. It looks totally real… except the signup link that goes to connectu! Evil bastards!
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