Cheezhead

Post from Plaxo blog

I was shocked to see that Plaxo has disregarded its own privacy statement with the launch of its new Pulse service. There is no way for users to opt-out of the Pulse service, so their web info is broadcast without their permission to everyone on their contact list.

How is blasting my info to everyone under the sun “control” over my information?

Like many of you I have seen a recent surge of connections through Plaxo Pulse. Pulse reports connections and actions from a number of social networks. Remember people quickly reacted negatively when Facebook tried Beacon (Is Facebook Beacon a Privacy Nightmare? Om Malik, Tuesday, November 6, 2007). They simply were not interested in having the books they buy at Amazon shared with the entire network, much less a number of other actions or connections. Is Pulse on the same path?

A ‘bound to happen’ situation was described to a friend recently - girlfriend gets Pulse connection update and learns that current boyfriend has connected with past girlfriend from college - when the friend said, ‘funny you should say that’. Her situation last week was a little different when she received a connection update that current boyfriend had connected with old boyfriend…she wants to know why and will ask. Do they want her to know or ask? Interesting question.

Facebook has stated that people had control over their information and actions by opting out if they did not want data shared. I appreciate the opportunity to opt out and block out. Is that enough? I personnaly prefer opt in…my choice, my decision and much more gracious. The truth is the social network business model requires that most don’t opt out - much easier to accomplish than convincing people to opt in and they need people active on the network to support advertising.

A new way for recruiters to discover talent and for some talent a new way to market themselves.

We are relying on the social networks for sourcing and recruiting more and more. And this sharing of connections, activities, actions and updates may cause more members to leave than join. For instance, another friend is Chariman of a company, his company is having personnel problems. I said I know and gave him the name of one of the management team he should be concerned about. He wanted to know how I knew about the problem and specifically that person. I showed him the Plaxo update that informed me the executive had updated their work information on Linkedin.

Is the executive looking for a new position? Thinking about looking? Do they understand that by updating their work history on one of the social networks they have left the perception that all may not be right with them or their company? Was this the intention?

It’s a question we all should consider when we update or make changes to our profiles - just what do we want to share and who do we want to share it with? Yes one can manage the distribution of information and friends in recruitment report that more people on Linkedin are blocking their connections. And this is what it gets down to, just as the blogger stated - people want control over their information, freedom from unwanted communications, and trust that your information will not be shared or sold.

If people want control, privacy and trust just what is the social network business model? Linkedin charges access to all names and Facebook wants to present market segments - a lot of market segments for targeted marketing / advertising…may work if they can convince members they are in charge of their own information.

Or maybe some will discover value in a private trusted network. Give some the opportunity to control the channels they receive in the home on television and the current advertising model would be turned upside down. But the value to the consumer may be so great many would pay more to recieve less. Something some of wish media would consider however, we will soon accomplish (hulu anyone?) by creating our own channels and programming through the internet

Social Networks aren’t going away but will continue to go through changes as they become Trusted Networks that allow privacy, encourage trust and provide information of value.

Sounds like a good recruiter to me.