Convertising the connected customer

IAB – Belgium’s Think Digital at The Egg in Brussels today…After a great edition last year, I came with high expectations and in the end I got what I’ve paid for: Convertising the connected customer as the big challenge for every company, advertiser, …. the next 3 to 5 years. We’re entering great times where customers have a different media consumption, use different devices and connect through new applications. As a company, organisation (and advertiser for shure) you need to know how this will affect your business.  I’m going to quote a tweet a saw during the day to prove my point : “heard a lot about second screens today while many companies still struggle to use/optimize just one screen” . In this quote lays the challenge for everybody in us….society is changing, media consumption is changing, …. but companies keep doing business as usual…Time to act, time to change, time to start “convertising”

Privacy, who cares? You better make a verb of the word privacy

Reading yet another ‘what knows Facebook about you’ – story just made me wondering…who realy cares about his privacy? And better yet, who truly knows the meaning of privacy, and is this notion of ‘privacy’ still relevant in the 21th century.

But first things first…what is privacy? I don’t want to take the dictionary a tell you a unique definition. For most people privacy starts where personal freedom ends. You want to be in control, and want to share people The stuff you want to share.

Apparently in the digital era there seems to be a double problem, because most people only see this definition as a definition of privacy…but there is a second approach to privacy: who owns your ‘data’? Because what you share on digital platforms isn’t yours anymore most of the time. The platforms own it, like Facebook keeps track of all your data, updates, photo’s,…. Most people don’t know this, few people care about it, but some people make a fuzz out of it. As the video bellow shows, Facebook knows a lot about you…but that doesn’t need to be a problem, what Facebook does with this data is the real question. They use it make personnal one-2-one advertising possible through Facebook Ads, and probably they will sell your date to who is willing to pay.

A new privacy model and open data AKA the social web!

Time to talk about privacy, again….
It’s one of those aspects of the (near) future where some significant change has got to take place in the flat world.

First, the term ‘privacy’ is ambiguous online. What you share online is out to be seen, unless you have limited access through changing your privacy settings. We all know Facebook has a lot of privacy setting, where you, as the user, need to take action if you want your profile and data to be hidden from the general public. I deliberately use the term hidden….because only the people who have been ’cleared’ will have the chance to see your information, pictures, status updates, likes, ….
Once you have posted your data, pictures, …. on Facebook (and many others), Facebook ‘owns’ your information. It’s stored in huge data-centers where you aren’t allowed in to delete , or adjust your information, ….! You don’t have any rights regarding the posted/shared information. You can only hide it.

If you want to sign up on another social network you can take your data with you, so you have to start all over again. For instance, my LinkedIn profile is similar to my Facebook profile but I have to make 2 profiles and build the information twice.  Nowadays you can embed information from different profiles, but the rough profile data remain property of Facebook, or LinkedIn. 

That’s now….what’s up in the future?!

We need to switch so a social web environment where we, the user, own our data and are able to migrate those data between the different providers, social networks, shops, …. This means I have  full control over my data, and not only the hide option. Do I control my privacy, YES, but we’ve got to understand that what’s out on the web, is not private but public. A lot of people still believe that privacy in the 21st century is the same as in the 1980-ies. Privacy is not a right anymore, it’s a verb! You work on keeping things private.

The open data option, where we can move data around free and data isn’t stored in closed data centers,  is gaining more success recently. Small steps have been taken to set up open data streams….off course the general public isn’t keen on the idea of open data, where there data isn’t protected anymore by any privacy charter/legislation. But the general public seems to misinterpret this idea, since in this protected environment we don’t even own are data anymore (and companies like Facebook use our data to make money…I don’t have a problem with this idea, but I would like to have the opportunity to just adjust/delete my data). Off open data-streams like in the US, UK or the Netherlands, need good procedures and license policies, but we need this regarding the new future privacy model: open data, where the owner own his data but these are shared everywhere in the flat world through good procedures and licences.

Tim Berners-Lee on of the founding fathers of the World Wide Web, the flat world as we know it, talks about open data in a TED talk.

Are you ready for an open data environment?

Re-thinking Privacy in the Flat & Social World

I read an interesting article on the flat world web on the end of the Facebook empire.  It was a personal protest on how Facebook changed their setting again….the like button (revisited), the revamped comment section and the continuous selling of our personal data. Is this a major problem, and will this be the end of Facebook? The last…I don’t think so, the first….probably yes if you think off-line or in a web 1.0!

I agree to the fact that our privacy, as we know it, is not what it used to be 10 years ago. But was does privacy mean? If you look into a basic dictionary you’ll probably find definitions like secret, seclusion, free from unsanctioned intrusion….but once we put it out on the web, it’s out there: no more secrets, no more seclusion! But still we think the flat world is like the extension from our living room. Once you close the drapes and the door everything is private….and this of course is a wrong idea. You can close the connection, but what you did in the flat world, stays in the flat world….It’s like your actions in the real world, they really have happened!

So what’s the fuzz about….the fact that you don’t own your personal data, that’s the real issue! We need a social web, where we can own our data! And if we own our data we can remove, replace, …. erase them! But we need to understand this is something different from being seen on the web.
 But this idea is something different from privacy in my opinion! And most people are mixing those. I would like your input on this idea? Please comment through the comment section, and start a debate….

A small anecdote to round this post up:
I remember a small exercise my wife did in het classroom (sixth graders – 17 year olds), were she just opened a regular Facebook page of a student looking through all the personal pictures, posts and comments. All the students were stunned by the fact this was so easy, but they weren’t aware this was possible. We need to educated them on the use of Internet, and possible privacy settings….they just put their life on the net. I don’t think this is a problem, the problem is they don’t manage this content (and don’t own it all the time….) Education can be the key, in addition to a more social web (but this need to be sort out on a flat world government level)

To be continued….

10 BIO dollar Tweet for privacy!

Twitter is being hunted down….since the value of this short message service has been estimated at 10 billion dollar both Google and Facebook are looking to buy Twitter (according to the Wall Street Journal).

The first negotiations were not positive, and it’s strange that both Google and Facebook are interested in company who still has an operational loss annualy! But the outlook for 2011 looks bright with a turnover between 100 and 110 mio dollar, will it be enough to make a profit….we’ll have to wait and see….

So why are Facebook and Google realy interested in Twitter: the data! As millions of users make billions of tweets their is a large sum of data to be collected. Data which is of interest for any (commercial) company! The Twitter community is highly valued amongst users.
If it comes to a take-over or merger between Twitter and Google/Facebook …a new datamogul rises and will have tons of data with valuable customer information which can and will be matched with the already exting data! Again less privacy, and more data in one hand….this company will rule our flat world on and off line when it comes to data mining!

Again it is time for a new flat statement:

In the flat world privacy is not an option.

Youngsters are aware of social media

A research done by University of Antwerp says youngsters a very aware of social media and are far more critical then we thought.

Teens are intensive users of social network sites as Facebook, Netlog, …but they don’t accept everybody to be their friend, and are aware of the information they are sharing.  Off course in the early days it was a popularity contest….who has the most facebook friends was the more popular guy – even the geek was popular in those days (but with doubtful friends????)! Since the early days we’ve come along way….and teens as well are more aware of the fact that everybody can’t be your friend. They even are afraid of what’s happening with their privacy and security, but that doesn’t stop them from sharing a lot of information. 

Some quick numbers:

• 90% of the teens has 1 or more profile pages on the net
• more than 50% logs on every day to check his profile
• 17% post every day
• 90% use their profile to keep in touch with old friends, new friends, daily friends, ….
• 46% is in search of new contacts

Most youngsters are still sharing a lot of private information over their profile, but have tightened their privacy set since the opened their profile. Only 27% of the teens think the social network is safe, and 23% says their privacy is accurately secure.

I think these results show a normal evolution in behaviour, which will set the future for the social media. We are aware, and will use it, but with more care. If you go into socialnomics part…this means those (closed) networks are becoming more and more important,, since the value of your friend is rising is this social network.

App(le)s vs privacy

Apps…the hype of the moment, but probably the newest gap in the privacy of the consumer!

It has always been a difficult balance between the web and privacy…and it’s getting more and more difficult in the new commercial web era to maintain your privacy as a consumer.  Have you been downloading and installing the newest apps on your smartphone of iPad, maybe even on your desktop or laptop? I have….but everytime I downloaded the app I got registered through my unique UDID….and off course my data are used by the developers, and today the newspaper writes about Apple being indicted for selling these data to commercial companies. I doesn’t surprise me, because Apple isn’t the first one….facebook did it already, google did it…

The question remains….did I agree to the fact that my private data were being sold by those companies….I didn’t read the entire  privacy charter of 40 pages of neither of these companies, who does anyway….but I did knew that Facebook sold the information  (it’s their business model), I suspected from Google (although they claim not to), but never guessed it from Apple…although it shouldn’t surprise me.

I don’t blame them…I blame the government, who still keeps neglecting the fact that we need a new and accustomed flat world law. We cannot think in a classical law system were country borders rule….we need a new one!

Privacy in a flat world?

I found this realy cool infographic about privacy on the Internet.  I left out the bottom part because of the irrelevance to my message, but if you want you can see the full version here.

Off course it’s only a representation of a few social media items in the flat world.  But if gives a good idea on who’s seeing wath information.  If you would search for a definition on privacy you would end up with this:

1. the condition of being private or withdrawn; seclusion
2. the condition of being secret; secrecy
(Collins Engish Dictonary)

In a real world situation this a easy, you open your door and close it. What happens in your homen stays in your home. (And as the saying goes: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas). BUT what happens on the Internet, stays on the Internet, facebook, netlog, Flickr, iGoogle, …. Every time you go in to the flat world you leave a trace (and not only through your IP-adress), but apparently we are fond on leaving our name, mail and more everywhere.

Did you google your name or e-mailadress? This only gives an idea of the information available. You have your personal facebook or other social network profile, with pictures, status-updates, … BUT did you check your privacy settings?

In the next 2 pictures you see how Facebook has shifted his privacy setting over the past 5 years. (The ful version can be found here. – I’m only showing 2 slides, but youcan follow the entire evolution on this website.)

 

I know it looks frightening, but don’t go over to Facebook and delete your profile…at least I didn’t! But let this be the start for you to rethink your privacy in the flat world. Even at home  you need to close the door to keep your privacy, maintain the same precausion when you’re in flat world.  Start by checking your privacy settings at your social media websites (Facebook, ….), but don’t be afraid to work on the flat world, make sure you have a secure line (httpS:// for example) will keep your data private!

On the other side, there is off course the huge data centers that are building up behing all those social media and other (commercial) website where you register or leave your data. These data will be used for data mining, and maybe sold (but then again this only is possible with your permission….Oh I forgot you gave it, when checking the litte box: ”I agree”).

If you want to read more on privacy in the flat world, I invite you to participate in the Flat Education. In the intensify section, there is a page (presently under construction) which deals with privacy in the flat world.