Fishburn Hedges

18.05.2010

Facebook. Privacy. The two words have been in close (usually critical) proximity of late.

But why the sudden fuss, and what does it say about our attitudes toward communication?

Facebook have a fine history of frustrating users with frequent changes to the site’s operations, terms and conditions and privacy settings. These changes are often criticised for being poorly explained and tricky to understand in practical terms. Recently the huge growth in complexity of privacy settings on Facebook was highlighted, and changes to them are on an opt-out basis. After all, let’s be honest, when was the last time you actually checked your settings? Yep, thought so…

But are concerns over Facebook privacy driven by Facebook’s operational changes and communications, or over our evolving attitudes towards online privacy? The latest Ofcom stats demonstrate a growing reticence about sharing personal info online. Doubtless this is in part fuelled by Facebook (and others), but the changing demographic of social media/web users must also play a part. The failure to anticipate significant generational differences in attitudes towards personal privacy as those not brought up in the Google era join the web must be considered. This is compounded by an unholy journalistic trinity of hostility from the media towards businesses threatening their livelihoods, the very same generational attitudinal barriers impacting journalist perceptions, plus the pursuit of juicy headlines.

So, what’s to be done?

Firstly, organisations like Facebook have to recognise that as they broaden their user-base, they need to work harder to contextualise both the benefits and the challenges of membership.

Secondly, the issue of online privacy needs to be broadened, to form part of the wider debate around individual data use in society at large, creating some sympathy of interests between government and web companies.

Thirdly, they need to begin to present the case for the benefits of online networking, over and above political campaigning. Too often we hear about the negatives, but not enough of the benefits, in the form of closer personal and community relations.