When it comes to online privacy…

…CEO Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook recently had some interesting things to say about it:

“When I got started in my dorm room at Harvard, the question a lot of people asked was: ‘Why would I want to put any information on the Internet at all? Why would I want to have a website?’

“And then in the last five or six years, blogging has taken off in a huge way and all these different services that have people sharing all this information. People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people. That social norm is just something that has evolved over time.

“We view it as our role in the system to constantly be innovating and be updating what our system is, to reflect what the current social norms are.

“A lot of companies would be trapped by the conventions and their legacies of what they’ve built. Doing a privacy change – doing a privacy change for 350 million users – is not the kind of thing that a lot of companies would do.

“But we viewed that as a really important thing, to always keep a beginner’s mind and what would we do if we were starting the company now, and we decided that these would be the social norms now and we just went for it.”

And here’s what it sounds like the CEO of Facebook is trying to say:

• When it comes to online privacy, the times have changed

• Part of the change is that most people don’t care about online privacy any more

• Since online privacy doesn’t matter anymore, at Facebook we’re not going to worry about it any more either.

As a co-author of the book INTERNET PRIVACY FOR DUMMIES…

…here’s why I think these comments from the Facebook CEO should concern you, and some tips on how to manage the role Facebook plays in your life:

PRIVACY TIP #1:

DON’T EVER FORGET THAT MOST PEOPLE JOINED FACEBOOK FOR PRIVACY

Here was the original idea behind Facebook:

• You could say stuff that only your friends could see

• You could post pictures that only your friends could see

• You could control who was your friend and who could see your stuff

But over time, the privacy part of Facebook has changed…

…so that it has gotten harder and harder to understand and control who could see what on Facebook.

PRIVACY TIP #2:

DON’T EVER FORGET THAT FACEBOOK IS CONTROLLED BY A 25-YEAR-OLD KID

His name is Mark Zuckerberg…

…and he started Facebook in his dorm room at Harvard in 2003.

But here’s the problem:

• Facebook has 350 million members…that’s more than the entire population of the United States (300 million)

• Mark Zuckerberg’s view of privacy is skewed by virtue of when he was born

• A great many people who are Facebook members are much older than Zuckerberg, and have a much greater concern about online privacy.

After all, think about the many ways in which technology has changed the rules of privacy over the years of Zuckerberg’s young life:

• We post our hourly activities on Twitter, for anyone to read

• We talk (loudly) on mobile phones in public, where anyone can hear

• We have grown accustomed to seeing and knowing that video cameras are everywhere (for instance, Zuckerberg was just 11 years old when OJ took his infamous televised ride down the LA freeways in his friend Al Cowlings’ white Bronco).

• We use credit cards and debit cards for everything, which leave an easy trail for banks to see

• Many celebrities, perhaps starting with Ozzy Osbourne, let cameras follow them around all day and all night

• Etc.

PRIVACY TIP #3:

UNDERSTAND HOW FACEBOOK BENEFITS FROM AN EROSION OF PRIVACY

It’s simple, really:

• Facebook needs to drive more traffic to the Facebook site, and that will generate more advertising revenue for the company…

• …and if they let everyone see everything on Facebook, that will help produce much greater traffic (and therefore, much greater revenue).

PRIVACY TIP #4:

START ACTING YOUR AGE

If you’re 25, like Zuckerberg, you may not really care about online privacy…

…because you’ve grown up in a different world than people who are older.

But if you’re older than 25…

…don’t give in to the 25-year-olds, if you don’t like what they are doing to YOUR online privacy.

And if you don’t like the erosion of privacy on Facebook?

• Make sure you take a close look at your own privacy settings on Facebook

• Let the company know you’re upset by sending them snail mail, email, and talking about it on Facebook and Twitter (Twitter is Facebook’s arch enemy)

• Consider cancelling your Facebook membership, and finding other ways to stay in touch with your friends

PRIVACY TIP #5:

SET YOUR OWN RULES FOR PRIVACY

Almost all websites and companies today have a privacy policy…

…but have you ever thought of writing your OWN privacy policy?

By committing in writing to what you will and won’t do in the name of privacy…

…it will make it easier for you, down the road, to determine what things you will and won’t do using technology that might erode your own privacy, or privacy in the world around you.

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