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Beware the 3 P’s: Pinterest, Path and Privacy

Monday, February 13th, 2012

Data…we HAVE managed to get in a right old pickle with it this week…

…first, Path, the social network whose modus operandi is limiting your personal network to 150 of your closest friends decides to upload all your personal contacts you granted it access to “in order to better personalise your experience”, then Pinterest, the fastest-growing start-up on the planet with just shy of 10m unique users (and still in beta!), reveals that when possible, it adds affiliate links to the content that you, the user, pins to your boards.

On the Facebook front, we have the widespread rejection of in-stream sponsored stories, brand/page advocacy by mere “fanship” of a Page, the 2011 integration with Spotify and the January announcement of 60 seamless sharing media partners and you begin to see an emerging, simmering suspicion that Facebook is looking to heavily ramp up its advertising/commercial initiatives post-IPO in order to bring the kinds of profits and dividends investors will demand – all off the back of your personal information.

The issue seems not, in Pinterest’s case, that they are making money from users (most users are very clear that Facebook uses their data in a less direct, but similar way), nor in Path’s case that they are collecting the data at all (it happens all the time when users grant access to an app/api) – the issue is entirely one of trust and disclosure which presents untold challenges for individuals and law-makers alike.

What we know as privacy has changed immeasurably from just a year ago and whilst we are increasingly comfortable with both the quantity and nature of what we share and when, the commercial thirst for using personal data for financial gain (often a financial gain that is not ours) has the potential to bring the whole personalised web pack of cards falling down around our ears.

We are on a knife edge with trust and privacy, with Facebook especially, pushing serious boundaries of user tolerance and legal boundaries. Despite the ASA remit now covering social media, law makers are struggling to catch up with a rate of change and innovation that is being thrust upon users in the social space.

As a result I think we are most certainly in a strange period of creatively-led law making rather than one in which businesses are required to operate within clear, unambiguous current law. And I don’t see this changing for some time – until the inevitable BIG data abuse happens, where two things will happen. 1. Users will revolt and disappear/revoke access to their data and 2. Law makers will impose “hammer to crack a walnut” style laws, governing the way personal/social data is handled in a strictly limiting, broad way.

If the law makers can’t keep up with the rate of change, then the first or perhaps second, major data abuse will bring about a blanket limitation on what we will be able to do. So, for all our sakes, everybody, please disclose, disclose, disclose…

Tags: path, pinterest, privacy, Social Media
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Insight 12: What’s on your digital agenda in 2012? Two of 10 – Portable Friends

Monday, January 16th, 2012

Portable friends? What do I mean by portable friends? Well, quite simply, its the result of now vice-like integration of social interactions into your contacts.

In its simplest form, it’s the ability to see your most recent social networking interactions with your friends within your address book. In its most complex form, it’s the ability to seamlessly share, broadcast and receive social activities and marketing-incentivised offers with friends to peers.

You’re probably already seeing a simple version of this when you sign up to a new web-service. Connect your email, Twitter or Facebook accounts and watch the service return friends from these networks who are already on this service. The system may also recommend people who may be connected to friends of friends who you may also know.

More than just connections

Portable friends will take on a much more “actionable” meaning in 2012 though, way beyond just connecting people, thanks entirely to the growth in mobile social networking.

The earliest example of this is the latest Windows Phone and its address book (Windows Mobile call this the “People Hub”). Assuming you have already connected your social accounts to the phone, the phone is then able to list and group your interactions with your address book friends, it will list their latest posts and actions and locations where they are doing things.

The opportunities this presents are incredible. Imagine the power of a scenario where Friend 3 is automatically notified of Friend 2′s location check-in, which in itself was incentivised by a deal sent to Friend 1 and shared to their network. A call or SMS made to Friend 2 reminds Friend 1 that there is a check-in money off deal at Retailer X.

At the moment, as a result of the use of independent social network apps, mobile social interactions are asynchronous – they only happen when you open the app up. The social integration of your address book in 2012 will bring a whole new, seamless dimension to mobile social networking.

The impact

As we move to more seamless, mobile sharing experiences, it’s going to be more crucial than ever for brands to have to understand their fan’s mobile and social networking habits (through the use of things like Forrester’s Mobile Technographics profile for example). Brands need to understand how they can provide fans with the means, material (and incentives) to interact with your brand when they are out and about so that branded messages and actions are carried with the seamless interactions between friends.

This also brings with it a significant concern around reputation management - think very carefully how you are going to gear yourself up for mobile monitoring – an area that has being almost entirely untouched by social media monitoring tools for many technical and privacy reasons. Will your existing tools be able to track mentions on all your social channels (especially location-based ones), will you be able to reliably access all your Facebook check-ins and how will you be able to map identify your new, mobile influencers?