Facebook: people don’t want privacy
In an interview with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, he talked a little about the evolution of social networking sites. He also touched upon the sensitive subject of how consumers are a bit more receptive to having their private information shared. Privacy issues with regards to personal information on the Internet has always been a controversial subject.
It seems like as time progresses, Internet users have learned that the Web can be a very scary place. Just this past year, stories of Internet stalkers and pedophiles seem to have hit an all time high. Also, one can’t forget about the professional folks that were fired because of some raunchy photos on their social networking sites.
However, according to Cnet, Zuckerberg stated that he believes that consumers are becoming more open to sharing private information publicly.
He stated:
People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.
Zuckerberg feels that openly sharing private information is now the social norm. He claims that one of Facebook’s roles is to assess what the current social norms are.
He also indicated that if he could start the company anew, then he wouldn’t have made privacy such a factor in Facebook. Zuckerberg stated that it was important for Facebook to “always keep a beginner’s mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”
Having one’s private information out there on the Internet has always been a sensitive issue. It really harkens back to the days when giving out personal information over the phone was a real problem with scammers. This is still the case today, but people have become educated enough to see these scams a mile away.
However, since the Internet is still relatively new, it seems like users are actually learning that they do not want their private information shared publicly.
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January 11th, 2010
I disagree. I believe people are still concerned but when faced with not being able to communicate with the people they want becuase it is an all or nothing. They choose all. Facebook I believe consistently push for open disclosure of information. The key is to not post much on your profile. This is still an option and should be used more. However, again people want to be known by others and so if it is all or nothing they will pick show all