Digital ID Coach

Data Ownership

February 17th, 2009

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Several people have asked about Facebook’s recent changes to their Terms of Service. The controversy was sparked by a post in The Consumerist entitled We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever! That was followed by a comparison by Amanda French, and an analysis by Jacobson Attorneys. Of course, in the fray Facebook’s Zuckerberg also weighed in.

What people were asking about is why they should care. They have ALL of their friends on the service and it has become The Only Way to keep up with their network. So what if Facebook uses a picture; that helps the photographer or artist, doesn’t it? (It’s doubtful that Facebook would give the artists credit for their work because that might distract from the mission of its use.)

A moment from history might be appropriate. Back in 1954, George Orwell wrote a book called 1984. Wikipedia says about this book that “the novel has become famous for its portrayal of pervasive government surveillance and control, and government’s increasing encroachment on the rights of the individual.”

Of note: these days it’s more about the influential power of the 10,000 little brothers to do the same work, like death by a thousand paper cuts. The issue remains as one of self-determination.

For your entertainment, here is the BBC version of Orwell’s book.

Coaching moment: Remember when you were a young teen and wanted to do a lot of exciting things, but your parents wouldn’t let you? They claimed that you didn’t yet have wisdom to act appropriately and might do harm to yourself or others. You probably viewed that as a matter of self determination: you know what’s best for yourself. As you get older, you’re often treated in a similar (and occasionally condescending) way by the marketing and advertising industry: they know what’s best for us. Advertisers make or contract with online services (like Facebook) in order to attract you to their advertisements. The advertisers want nothing more than to sell you stuff–because isn’t that the bottom line of their business, to sell more stuff?

What are your options? Would you rather be part of a system in which you can declare your interests? Let’s say you love looking at new car ads, but don’t want to see truck commercials. Or let’s say you want to know what natural soaps or facial products are available these days. Wouldn’t it be nicer to see the ads for goods and services that are of interest? That would also be a benefit to the advertisers who want you to see things you’re interested in buying.

What do you think? I welcome your comments.

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