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The Winds of Privacy

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Is all the discussion about Internet privacy hot air or does it reflect a climate change into how people approach social networks?

This morning's USA Today includes a jam-packed cover story on Facebook, Facebook walks a tricky line weighing privacy vs. profit, which quotes me as saying, "People are concerned, but they aren't taking action." I wanted to share the data behind that sound bite.

Ninety-five percent (95%) of the 426 respondents we interviewed online have some concerns about Internet privacy, with 40% being very or extremely concerned. (See Consumer Attitudes towards Social Media Market Research for full details on the research.) Some of the typical comments:

• "A little too close to ‘Big Brother is watching'. But you should know enough to never post, comment, etc. if you don't want others to read it."
• "I consider it an invasion of my privacy, much like reading my mail from the USPS."
• "My concern would be too much personal info in the wrong hands in this day and time."

Naturally, my expectation when analyzing the survey data was that people who were extremely concerned about Internet privacy would behave differently than people who were less concerned. Instead, I found:

• People concerned about Internet privacy don't engage in fewer online activities.
• Concerned users don't vary in which social networks they use or how many social networks they use.
• Concerned users don't comment less often on web sites than unconcerned users do.
• Concerned users aren't less likely to use photos of themselves when posting comments.
• Concerned users aren't less likely to share their real name or email address when posting comments.
• Concerned users aren't less or more likely to create remixes and mashups.

In fact, people very concerned about Internet privacy are pretty much the same as people only slightly concerned about Internet privacy.

One of my favorite comments on the USA Today article said, "They post everything from their phone numbers and email to...images of their homes and times they will be on vacation, which burglars have begun to exploit; some people even post when they are playing hooky from work, and then get fired for it. I remember back in the 80's when people were scared of Big Brother watching every moment of the day and monitoring our lives: today between Facebook and Twitter, we don't need Big Brother, we do it ourselves."

People are right to be concerned about Internet privacy, but concern alone won't be enough. They have to behave differently. As Mark Twain said, "Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it."