Business
Privacy Online: Possible?
This post was inspired by an article entitled Social Media Privacy is an Oxymoron. It sparked some thoughts for me around how one can achieve at least *some* privacy online; assuming this is important to you because for a surprising number of people, it isn’t.
First off – Facebook. Many informative posts have been written about controlling your privacy or removing yourself from Facebook altogether. Some high-profile Facebook users are taking a stand against recent changes on Facebook affecting privacy. And you may have heard by now that “Quit Facebook Day” is scheduled for May 31, 2010. Before you quit, you may want to first determine what amount of your private info on Facebook is exposed. This application, as well as this one can help you do that.
But while all the attention and heat is on Facebook, what about everything else? Among, what is undoubtedly, a myriad of vulnerabilities on the big old web, here are just a few ideas that may help you stay a little more private.
To prevent the tracking of my every click, I like to use CoolPreviews. This is a tool that allows me to see what’s behind a link without having to click on it. I like to use this a lot when logged into LinkedIn or Twitter, as the tracking of where and what you click can be scrutinized. For example, if you notice a tweet was posted via Hootsuite, and the link provided is an OWLY link, your click will be counted. Not a huge deal perhaps as your click, in this case anyway, is in no way connected to your account. (At least, not that I’m aware of.) On LinkedIn however, if you are logged in and you check out someone’s profile, your “click” as it were, *is* linked to your profile. This enables this cool-but -creepy feature:
There is a long list of ways to add more privacy to your browsing habits. Many browsers like Safari and Firefox now offer ‘Private Browsing‘ ensuring you that no website you open will be kept on record. Anywhere. There are also many types of ‘scramblers’ you can use that mask your IP address. These are called proxy servers. This can help prevent data collection on where you are in this universe, what browser you’re using, what kind of computer you’re using, among other things. Want to know what your IP reveals about you? Go here.
Google Analytics and Quantcast, as two examples, are now offering “opt out” options. Google Analytics, for one, is allowing people to opt out of being monitored for receiving targeted ads.
Quantcast, an American based service that measures audience statistics for websites, is offering something similar.
This is just the tip of the iceberg for ways of preserving privacy online. The questions I have are:
Is it too little too late?
Is it time to redefine what online privacy means?
Should we care this much? Everyone is up in arms over the privacy principle, but is the privacy practice (the way our private info is being used) really that offensive and/or scary?
I’d love to hear what you think.
Tags: advertising, facebook, Google Analytics, LinkedIn, opt out, privacy, proxy servers, Quantcast, Twitter
A Budding LinkedIn Love Affair
I have a crush on LinkedIn. I’m not sure if the feeling is mutual, but it’s getting pretty serious on my end.
I signed on a few years ago and, like a lot of people, didn’t use it that much at first. It actually struck me as a bit dry (versus the delicious options available through Facebook and Twitter). But now, I see the light. And I’m not the only one.
As you may know, LinkedIn is a social network for professionals. You “connect” with people you have worked with, would like to work with, or have similarities with, professionally speaking or otherwise.
LinkedIn is an incredible source of information for my work. For example, I can browse by keywords to find people or companies I may want to hire or work with. I can see who of my connections are already connected with these new folks and can get a review I can trust. The “Recommendations” feature also helps me understand what sets someone apart from the pack with real endorsements.
LinkedIn Groups also offers me the opportunity to join groups relevant to my line of work, further extending my network. The groups I join also display on my profile so others in my network can join too.
LinkedIn tracks and reveals (to some extent) who has looked at my profile and what other profiles on LinkedIn are looked at after or before mine. This helps me understand how people perceive me and/or the work I do.
Blog posts, book recommendations and Twitter feeds can now be integrated into LinkedIn profiles. But my favourite current feature is how I can build credibility by simply talking about what I know.
The Answers section of LinkedIn allows me to ask a question or answer one. When I answer one, it is recorded on my profile as part of my recent activity. So, once again, my network, or others checking out my profile, can join that conversation or just read the thread. But it gets better. Answers are also rated by other users – encouraging people to give the best answer they can, benefiting everyone. If an answer is picked as the best one, this also reflects on a profile – further helping build credibility. Last but not least, by engaging on LinkedIn, it helps SEO. One of my answers was picked up by Google within 24 hours.
What’s not to love? You can see why I’m smitten.
According to Wikipedia, as of April 2010 LinkedIn has more than 65-million users worldwide. Are you one of them?
Location Based Advertising-Shaking The Ground We Walk On?
Location Based Advertising
Recently, I attended the DigiBC and Wavefront AC session, “Location is Key to Mobile Marketing Success.” The industry is a abuzz about Location Based Advertising and as session moderator Sandy Fleischer (Fjord) observed, “LBA was the only game in town at SXSW.”
For good reason. After 50 years of brands bombarding us with advertising we may or may not care about, the concept of receiving value rich “smart ads” for products and services located close to where you are standing or embedded in GPS maps is beyond exciting.
It’s also got me wondering.
What if advertisers and platform creators, punch drunk with new LBA business models, spam the heck out of our devices? If I am walking along the street and suddenly 15 text messages soar on to my iPhone, those Ginsu Knife ads might start to look good. Too obvious? Will never happen? I wonder.
Maybe it’s not 15 ads. 2 or 3 may be enough to rankle. I appreciate that certain ads may be triggered by my action, rather than simply by my location. And in theory, I like the idea of receiving information and special offers tailored to my buying habits. Embedding these ads on my GPS device feels okay, perhaps even desirable. However, my phone is an intensely personal portal for everything from family photos to business and intimate communications. My tolerance is low for anyone who trespasses there.
I’m also curious to see how location based advertising impacts traditional advertising. Look how user generated content has altered the way some brands, large and small, shoot their television spots. Will national TV/radio/print ads with little if any regional customization feel irrelevant? Or will those broad reach ads be the wide end of a sales funnel that ends with high context, individualized LBA? Will media buyers buy differently, slicing and dicing national campaigns in response to the demands of hyper location-centric consumers? Will the production process involve more versioning than ever so brands can target ads to consumers in tighter categories, more clearly defined locations?
What do you think?
Do you think those positioned to benefit from location based advertising revenue will spoil the party by spamming consumers with ads? Will LBA alter traditional media?
The ground is shifting and no matter where you are standing, it’s exciting to watch!
Best,
Moyra
Tags: ads, advertising, LBA, location based advertising, media
Google Vs China: It’s all about trust!
Google just moved their Chinese search engine to Hong-Kong. While people tend to say it’s because they lost the “war” against Baidu or that they were not making money and needed an excuse to get out, I don’t think that’s the main reason. I would say, they did it to protect the rest of their market i.e. Google users around the world.
How is Google making money? Pay-per-click advertising.
Why do they have such an effective PPC service? They target the right ads to the right people.
How do they do that? With the HUGE amount of data they collect from their users.
Why do their users let them collect so much personal data and are happy with it? They trust Google and in return, users get excellent services.
Their competitive advantage is the data they collect from the relationship they have with their users. For those who don’t know, Google creates personal and corporate profiles from data they get from Analytics, Gmail, Search, iGoogle, Blogger, Google Voice, Maps, etc. However, many like myself, continue to use their services because I am confident that this data is being used in a way that would not upset me.
I don’t think it was the Chinese operations that were at risk but rather their competitive advantage they would lose. What would the rest of the world think if there were more breaches? What if Google had to give some of their data to the Chinese government? That would undermine the public trust and the Google users would move somewhere else. Bing has much “better” privacy policies but who cares? If there is an incident in the future, people will care.
This should be a good lesson for your company. Respect your users, show them that trust is the most important thing inside your organization and your users will return you the favor… trust me :-)
Browser Business: I’ll Get the Tab
Stop.
What tabs are open on your browser right now?
You are not allowed to close or omit any.
Be honest. I want to know where you’ve been, or where you will go when you get time.
Any time I’m working on my computer (which is everyday – all day), I find articles, posts or websites that I want to explore further. I create a fresh tab for each find, and then they sit there until the end of a day, or a weekend sometimes, when I have time to check them out.
So, in an intentional effort to navel gaze, I thought I would dedicate this post to reveal what’s in my tab collection today. Think of it as taking an overstuffed drawer, dumping everything out, and looking to see if there is anything interesting worth keeping.
Tab #1 – BBC: SuperPower Channel. Exploring the power of the web. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specialreports/superpower.shtml
Tab #2 – NYTimes article on bumping phones to exchange money: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/15/owe-someone-money-just-bump-your-phones/?ref=technology
Tab #3 – A post on SEO blunders by 3 huge companies: Reebok, TJ Maxx, and Prada. http://searchslingshot.com/2010/03/big-brands-seo-errors/
Tab #4 – A blog post review about an underground restaurant in Vancouver. A place I plan to go very soon. http://www.foodandtell.com/2008/08/24/12b-vancouvers-underground-restaurant/
Tab #5 – A very popular post by Bit Rebels on how not to get burned out on Twitter. http://www.bitrebels.com/geek/how-to-be-active-on-twitter-without-getting-burned-out/
Tab #6 – Another blog post recommended offering stock options to employees to up their commitment to a company. http://www.ianbell.com/2010/03/05/on-stock-options/
Tab #7 – My Gmail account.
Tab #8 – My Twitter account.
Tab #9 – LinkedIn profile of the president of a company I’m very unhappy with.
Tab #10 – An article on the truth about cookies (the computer kind). http://lifehacker.com/5461114/
Tab #11 – Another underground supper club I thought sounded pretty awesome. http://swallowtailsupperclub.blogspot.com/
Tab #12 – Dictionary.com for doubts about my spelling.
Tab #13 – An article about Toyota’s crisis management strategy.
http://www.thebigmoney.com/articles/judgments/2010/02/17/did-twitter-topple-toyota?page=0,0
So, your turn. What tabs have you got?
Tags: browser, content discovery, tab
