Privacy Concerns
An article by Victoria Craig, published on 10/02/2012, tells
of how Facebook defends the newest onslaught of privacy concerns. These specific concerns stem from users
questioning how much information that advertisers can access.
One new effort by Facebook to drive more income is called
Facebook Exchange, which allows advertisers to bid on ads placed in
real-time. It also allows advertisers to
use their own consumer insight data to reach a target audience on Facebook.
The other is called Custom Audiences, which allows
advertisers to target ads to specific people.
One example is to run a campaign to get more likes for your company’s
Facebook page by targeting people that are already customers, but who have not
liked your Facebook page yet.
The technology today is great for advertisers. There are so many different ways to get your
target audiences. But, with this wealth
of information comes a responsibility to keep that information private. Using aggregate data is the best way to keep
customer’s privacy intact, in my opinion.
By using aggregate data, you are not using any specific information
about any one person, but are still getting the information you need to target
your advertising to a specific area or group of people. You do not want to contact specific people
because that makes them uncomfortable and much less likely to even read or
listen to your advertisement. Likewise,
you do not want to sell or give away any of your customers’ information that
you have collected through sales and whatnot.
Not only does this make your customers angry, but it can also violate the
various privacy laws that are in effect.
One more think you will want to have is a privacy policy. I wholeheartedly believe that your privacy
policy should be in plain English (no legal jargon), short and to the point,
and easily available for anyone who wants to read it.
Protecting your customers’ information is another huge thing
you will want to do as well. Storing
that information in an encrypted database is a good start, but you will also
want to make sure that your network is secure so that it’s very difficult to
infiltrate. Anything can be decrypted, in
time. Some encryptions take much longer
than others to decrypt, but I have learned that nothing is 100%. There is always a way in, and someone who is
determined will most likely get in. The
point is to deter them enough that they don’t want to get in anymore.
I think that if Facebook runs the services listed above in
the correct way, taking the user’s privacy concerns in high regard, these
services will be a great asset to both Facebook and the users themselves by
showing them advertisements that they are more likely to enjoy and pay
attention to. This also benefits the
companies doing the advertising as well.
All in all, it can be a big win-win for everyone involved, if it is done
correctly…and I hope that it is!
-Ryan Campbell
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