Privacy- Do We Have Any Anymore?

I listened to the most recent Media Hacks episode of Mitch Joel’s excellent Six Pixels of Separation podcast, where the guys were discussing everything from the Please Rob Me website, geo-location apps like Gowalla and Four Square, and even Blippy, my favorite example of a channel for overshare that was even highlighted at this year’s TED conference.

Couple this with the recent issues about kids being “monitored” by the Lower Merion School District, which is now being investigated by  the FBI, and you quickly can come to the impression that privacy is over.  The school district case is a mess, but it raises lots of interesting questions about where school and governmental authority begins and ends.

I have been online for longer than I care to admit, and I know that when I put something up on this blog, or Facebook, Twitter or any other channel, it’s open for anyone and everyone to see.  I will be accountable for anything I put up here forever, thanks to Google and the miraculous Internet Wayback Machine.  I know that, and I take that into account before I post things, knowing that clients, future clients, friends and relatives and anyone else out there have access to everything.  But where does the concept of privacy start and stop?

Everyone seems to have a different line they draw for themselves.  Some people don’t post anything having to do with family- no pictures of them or their kids online.  But then this rule is subject to violation when kids appear in someone else’s photos that get posted, when you’re in a group shot at a party, or other ways where your carefully scripted version of public and private is violated by well meaning friends.  Since it’s almost difficult to go buy a traditional film camera these days, and the actual supply of film at the local camera store yesterday was sad compared to the wall of film they used to stock, the majority of photos are digital, which obviously enhances the ability to share and exchange them, which people then do, meaning any photo- innocent or compromising- can become public domain with a few keystrokes.

This is not meant to freak anyone out, but it’s simply a fact that the old rules of privacy are being eroded away, bit by bit, byte by byte, over time.  If I were practicing family law, for example, I would definitely try to monitor both what my client and their soon-to-be-former spouse were doing and saying online- in a public forum, that information should be admissible as evidence, although I’ll be frank that Facebook was not created when I took evidence in law school in the early ’90’s.   On the other hand, the fact that there is this openness and discoverability might just work to keep people together, because they can’t hide that information from each other, either.  Transparency keeps everyone a bit more honest and accountable, but when does this constant stage pressure become too much?

We leave a digital paper trail behind us that should not be alarming so much as causing us to think a little bit, at least, about what we’re doing, what choices we’re making and why.  We can create incredibly rich and important relationships with others online.  I keep in touch with friends all over the globe now, that I otherwise would lose that sense of relationship and of being current in each other’s lives without these tools.  I learn new things every day, share information, and have fostered business relationships through these tools, and the fact that people can find out almost anything they want about me before we ever meet.  This “pre-vetting” is like a fast track towards trust, friendship and sometimes, business that works far faster and far more efficiently than ever before.

For all these tremendous positives, it also means that people know when I am cranky with my offspring, when I’m available, when I’m out of town, and just about everything I’m doing.  My trainer knows where I’m out to dinner and potentially doing something I shouldn’t if I check in with foursquare, but my clients also know when I’m in the office for the same reason.  I’ve agreed to make this information accessible, and I bear the fallout, good, bad and indifferent from this connection.

And my kids are growing up in a world where that line between private and public is fuzzier than ever.  It’s taken me years to become comfortable with all of this- will this be the new normal for them?  Will future politicians always have to see pictures of themselves as a child, ranging from food on the face to those first girlfriends, just by a few quick searches online?  How will anyone be able to be perfect all the time?  Will our standards finally change and we’ll have to allow for people to make mistakes and change their mind, rather than be somehow wedded to an opinion they had back a decade ago?

I have no idea where the concept of privacy will be in five years or ten.  Where courts will decide the constitutional rights to some sort of privacy exist, at least as far as the State is involved, is going to be difficult, especially when people are so willing to share (and overshare) with no thought at all.   Hopefully, we’ll decide much of our right to privacy still exists within our home, but we’ll have to see how the case in Lower Merion Township turns out, and whether inviting a governmentally owned computer into our house gives up some of these rights or not.  There’s tons of litigation like this ahead, you can bet, so all you law students out there- make sure you’re paying attention during Con Law and Evidence.  Your career could depend on it.

Tags: Blippy, foursquare, gowalla, internet, lower merion school district, Mitch Joel, privacy, six pixels of separation

Bringing Local to the Web

When you put up a website,it’s easy to take for granted that you are creating a platform that lives without traditional boundaries. Instead of being limited to contacting people in your local community or neighborhood, you can reach people all across the globe.  That’s incredibly powerful, but for many businesses, they are less concerned about reaching people in Dubai, but more interested in reaching their friends and neighbors.  Maybe not just within one State, perhaps, but people in a drivable geographic distance, especially if you deal with personal services.

Get Found, Become Engaged

There are some basic tools that can help.  Using Google Local to make sure our business shows up in local search results is a good first step.  Checking out what people are saying about you online through Vanity Searches and by using Google Alerts is another great idea.  This pair of resources makes sure your business can be found on google, even if you don’t have a formal website, and that you know what people are saying about you online, so you can get a sense of your reputation and perhaps even enhance your customer service or offerings in response to that feedback.

Reviews and Recommendations

With the rise of many location-aware applications and websites, ranging from Yelp, to Gowalla to Foursquare, not to mention newer, augmented reality applications, people are leaving messages and recommendations  (pro and con) to their friends about your business, whether you know it or not.  More and more of these review sites are being added all the time, which is enough to make any business owner crazy.  If you run a restaurant, making sure you can participate in something like Open Table, might help get you new business as well.

Asking people to give you recommendations on LinkedIn after a job well done will help you build your reputation for excellent work, and asking clients to connect with you on social media sites, like a Facebook Fan Page might help you increase engagement with your existing customers as well as helping them spread the news of our business to friends and colleagues.

While Twitter can be a very noisy and very global place, you can increase its value for you by looking for people in your local area who use the platform.  Hubspot has a great tool that will let you find the twitter elite- the noisiest people in your area
, who might be great people to contact about special offers or news about your business, as they are likely to pass it on to their audience.  Finding and driving your local audience on big social platforms, whether it’s geo-targeted ads on Facebook or focusing on local folks on twitter may even be worth more to you than traditional ads, assuming you know how to measure these efforts.

The Delaware Social Media Initiative

Ken Grant has started a plan to help put Delaware on the map as a social media hub.  While it certainly isn’t as early to the game as Boston or San Francisco or even Philadelphia, Delaware has some surprising advantages that are making this a realistic and very doable goal.  First, as a small state, we have the advantage of local connections that are easy to transfer online.  The distance between Main Street and the State House was never all that far here, but social media is making it easier than ever for local people to have meaningful interactions with local and statewide politicians, as well as our representatives in Washington.  While we don’t see Joe Biden as often at the Greenville Brew Ha Ha, we still can run into Mike Castle at Purebread Deli when he’s in town.

By helping the small and local businesses develop an online presence, we’re making it easier for people to find the great local resources we have here by essentially amplifying the word of mouth that already exists.  It makes it easier for people from surrounding areas to find out what’s available, and what they can do after they finish touring Nemours, or Hagley or Winterthur.  And what’s great, is more and more people are coming out to social events ranging from Ignite Wilmington to DelTweet- the Delaware Tweetups, nad finding out that social media can have really positive effects- especially when matched up with the ability to come together, and shake hands in the real world.  Web folks and social media geeks are now helping local businesses figure this stuff out and what might work for them- and we can have a state-wide impact quickly, becaause of the size and close knit nature of our community.

We’re finding out that local and global can come together nicely, step by step.  We can grow business and awareness and not break the bank doing it.  We can share tools and teach people to do this, to be more effective at what they already do to attract customers and new business and retain the old, without costing them a fortune in the process.

The Delaware Lab, as I like to call it, has an amazing group of people involved, and all are entering this online world with a sense of wonder but also a sense of what is realistically possible.  I know I’m trying to make sure everyone knows how to make real measurement of the before and after of their efforts, because for every business, the implementation and the success rate will vary.

Most importantly, I know we’re helping a community that like many, has been hit by the recession.  People are stressed and looking for new ways to do business, and this helps open a door to trying something different.  Our local media and government officials are being incredibly supportive, including the New Castle County Chamber of Commerce and the State Chamber of Commerce.  We have Fortune 500 companies in our midst, small businesses, and everything in between, and people are starting to work together towards common goals.

It’s exciting to think the year is just beginning, but we have a real chance to move our whole state forward in a short period of time.

Sharing Ideas

How would you move your local community forward on the web?  How do make something that creates a world wide platform and turn it into an affective local business generator?  How do you bring everyone together in a community?  We have the advantage of small- but how would this work in California or Texas for example?

I think this is the next big thing for communities- bringing their stories and resources online and making other people, regardless of the distance, sit up and take notice.  What can you do to help your local community today?

We’re dreaming big here in Delaware.

Tags: Deltweet, foursquare, google alerts, google local, gowalla, hagley, ignite wilmington, internet, Joe Biden, local, local web\, mike castle, nemours, web, winterthur, yelp