Half Of Social Network Users Fear Privacy Issues As They Should

Many users of social media networks are worried that the companies that own the networks “spy” on them. Most of these privacy issues have to do with the websites giving marketers information about the habits of their users. That allows advertisers to  more effectively reach their target audiences. The practice seems benign, but many people with profiles on sites like Facebook and MySpace do not want any of their information given out at all.

Social network membership is, to some extent, a deal with the devil. All the services  are free. People do not have to pay to host their pages, pages which take up storage space no matter how modest. However, tens of millions of members create content that strains millions of dollars worth of storage and servers and the need to add to that capacity is growing. Perhaps the social network member should give something in return?It may not be reasonable for Facebook to share member information, and people who use the service and privacy advocates attack the company for its practices. More and more members worry about who has access to their profiles whether the worry is reasonable of not.

A new Marist poll shows that 50% of those with profiles on social network sites are concerned about privacy. “This includes 27% who are concerned and 23% who are very concerned,” the study says. Older people are more concerned than younger ones are about the privacy issue. “65% of those 60 and older have some degree of concern about their privacy on a social networking site.” That is only natural. The internet was “invented” when these people were in early middle age. Younger people may have used Facebook, Twitter, and Google since they were very young.

Paranoia is, by most standards, an irrational state of mind. Most people are not being followed by the government. Their phones are not tapped. They are not likely to be abducted by aliens who may scan their brains for information. But, the paranoia about social network privacy has a certain validity as it should. Large internet companies have found that it is not enough to give marketers broad information to get their advertising dollars. It is not enough in many cases to say that companies that sell video games should buy space on video game sites. Video game companies want to know which games people play, what they pay for those games, and how often they play them. Websites “mine” user information to get that data.

Traditional websites are losing advertising dollars to Facebook. It has more ad inventory than any site in the US. It tends to sell that inventory inexpensively. That is because it is difficult to categorize the behavior of social network users. The do not flock to one sort of content of another. They are their own content, and, in the world of the internet, the content of their friends. That makes it more tempting for  Facebook to gather data, whether its  members like it or not. It is also an incentive for large websites that compete with Facebook to get more detailed data on their visitors as well. An arms war has broken out on the internet. It is one driven by the need of websites to deliver as much information as possible to their advertisers.

Paranoia is only abnormal when it is unjustified.

Douglas A. McIntyre