Do Facebook Users Care About Privacy? Do You?

[mjtaylor]

If you get the WebProNews in your email, you may have already seen this story:

Just How Concerned with Privacy Are Facebook Users?
Report Looks at Public Reaction vs. Media Sensationalism

PeopleBrowsr shared a rather interesting report with us this week, looking at privacy related tweets during the center of this year's Facebook "privacy storm." The firm studied the public's reaction to Facebook's open graph-related announcements that set off the majority of the Facebook privacy controversy back in April.

The report looked at Tweets with references to privacy during heightened media attention to Facebook privacy issues to determine whether the public is concerned.

"We are the last generation to know privacy as it was," says Brian Solis, Chief Data Analyst for PeopleBrowsr. "As Facebook moves human connections and society into a more public spotlight, people and the press will push back. But this will move things forward collaboratively. Over time I believe the debate will evolve into a series of productive forums and memes that explore the risks of living in public and the rewards for participation."

Some of PeopleBrowsr's findings from the study:

- Prior to the F8 conference on April 24, privacy tweets hovered between 1,000-3,000 references per day, then spiked to 9,000 on the day of F8

- On April 25 (day after the conference), privacy-related tweets fell to 3,500 – then surged to 7,500 when politicians joined the fray. Around May 25, privacy discussions hit the ceiling in this study with 20,000 unique discussions.

- In terms of context, Facebook dominated the landscape for mentions of #privacy

- Conversations followed media reports

"We see that even on the day when privacy took center stage, the media sensationalized the topic. But the public, at least those on Twitter, did not flood the streets with 140 character picket signs. 9,000 tweets does not seem to account for the millions of Twitter users or the 500 million people who have Facebook accounts," says Solis.

Where do you stand on privacy and Facebook?

[morestar]

Nice post MJ!

"We are the last generation to know privacy as it was," says Brian Solis, Chief Data Analyst for PeopleBrowsr. "As Facebook moves human connections and society into a more public spotlight, people and the press will push back. But this will move things forward collaboratively. Over time I believe the debate will evolve into a series of productive forums and memes that explore the risks of living in public and the rewards for participation."

I don't understand what he means or suggests by "people and press will fight back".

Every time the issues of privacy and FB come up I find the only people who care to hear the news are:

1. media
2. web developers/marketers
3. pundits

But the group that matters the most to Facebook don't care, never listen to the news and aren't web/developers and marketers so they have very little exposure to the privacy issue. I could say the proof to my statement can be had by looking at the zero effects of the issues when they arise. Very few close their accounts and people keep joining - especially the age bracket that I'm speaking about - ages 10 to 26 or so. They don't care! They'll post anything and everything they want. When they get 'got', actually experience the negative effects of a privacy function, they simply fix the problem and move on.

• Kerry Katona was going to or has closed her Facebook account - what changed?
• Matt Cutts and other Google engineers have closed their account - I haven't.
• Here's one: More web industry leaders close their Facebook accounts - woopti do.

Sure there's a big number of Tweeters tweeting about Facebook and it's privacy issues but I tell you this: a large portion of those tweeters are either tweeting for 'tweet publicity", media pundits or are of the age range that really doesn't matter or make a difference anyway i.e. regular working parents who have no time to write a letter to the government.

My stand on the privacy with Facebook is if you don't want the world to see it, don't post it but let Facebook be as public as reasonably possible while giving the user full control and a tight grip of their privacy settings.

That's the way it is now anyways.

[luigip]

ronaldeddy, social media is far more than just bookmarking. Furthermore the thread is about FB and not a bookmarking site.