Re: State of Social Web Update

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 7:15 PM, Tom Morris <tfmorris@gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree with Christine.  I'm very concerned about privacy, but I also
> recognize that the general population does not.

I do agree the problem is that one can often seem to "cherry-pick"
statistics. However, given the tremendous amount of media coverage of
privacy issues (in non-geek mediums, such as New York Times and "Time"
magazine), I think the some portion of the general population is at
least dimly aware, and I'd say the polls are about right. However,
just because someone doesn't quit Facebook doesn't mean they aren't
concerned about their privacy. It just may mean they find the benefits
of the social network currently outweight the privacy issues. I do
think that we need to be clear that privacy and portability are not
mutually exclusive as well.

>
> On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 1:48 PM, Melvin Carvalho
> <melvincarvalho@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 29 June 2010 14:50, Christine Perey <cperey@perey.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> hi Harry,
>>>
>>> I would like to put into question the second half of the first statement
>>> in this section of the final report. In particular my concern is with the
>>> reason the document attributes to a "surge" in interest in Social Web (I
>>> could even question if there is a surge of interest outside the academic
>>> community, but I will abstain from that for the moment).
>>>
>>> The sentence finishes...
>>> fueled largely by the discontent with existing social networking sites's
>>> terms-of-service as regards the privacy of data.
>>>
>>> I believe that this is over emphasizing a hot topic in the blogosphere but
>>> if you were to ask a dozen people on the street, you would not find them
>>> overly concerned.
>>
>> Some stats on this:
>>
>> http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/07/study-half-of-us-care-about-social-network-and-geolocation-privacy-but-what-are-we-doing-about-it/
>>
>> Two separate studies were conducted this week that suggest that social
>> network and geolocation users are torn right down the middle when it comes
>> to issues of privacy. Both studies showed that for about half of the
>> respondents, privacy is their number one concern.
>
> Sure, and I bet they all would say they are deeply concerned about
> world hunger too, but the editorial (yes, it's an editorial calling
> for more action on privacy), also says:
>
>  "So why are we saying one thing, but doing another when it comes to privacy?"
>
> and
>
>  "If half of us are that concerned about privacy, it should stand to
> reason that we would do something about it. However, rather than
> leaving these networks that cause so much concern, people continue to
> sign up: Facebook will be announcing its 500 million user milestone
> any day now, and Foursquare has reached 1.8 million users in its first
> year alone."
>
> It's fine to say that we need to worry about privacy now so that some
> when the general population does begin to care the appropriate
> technologies are available, but I don't see the data to support the
> statement that most users care in any concrete way.
>
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2010 at 8:02 PM, Harry Halpin <hhalpin@ibiblio.org> wrote:
>
>> In particular, at least for me, privacy is one of the most important
>> reasons for committing to an open and distributed social web. In
>> particular, e-mail is obviously broken. It was designed for a world of
>> computer labs, and our most intimate and private thoughts are being
>> passed around in essentially clear text that any one - including some
>> government agencies with rather dangerous human rights records  - can
>> read. And government agencies and businesses are communicating their
>> most important data in a fundamentally unsafe manner as well.
>
> That's fine as a personal statement of belief, but it in no way
> reflects the general population.  How long has privacy enhanced email
> been available?  How many people use it?

Well, it's hard if not impossible to use for most people.

However, I think Melvin's stats point to the fact that - given the
massive concerns over Facebook's changes in terms of service and
privacy policies as well as the launch of Google Buzz's privacy
disaster getting national headlines, I think the tide has turned since
2009 to a desire for about half of users (if the study Melvin showed
is correct)
>
> Tom
>

Received on Saturday, 17 July 2010 16:03:30 UTC