Digital Divas TV is a fun, social experiment created by five savvy, entrepreneurial women who share their colorful experiences as they navigate the crazy, ever-changing world of technology, new media and life.

Episode #7 Privacy Changes on Facebook

by Louise on June 3, 2010

Welcome to Episode 7 of Digital Divas.TV. This week, we’re talking about privacy changes on Facebook.

Where the Facebook ”share”  or “connect” used to appear, now a thumbs-up “like” button appears instead. The share and or connect button gave users the opportunity to consciously share information with their friends; the Facebook “like” button does that too and it also disseminates user data into the wider world of the web, without users’ awareness or permission.

Watch our diva discussion and decide for yourself if the “like” button is likeable or not!

Running time:  18.35 minutes

Kathy:

  • Kathy adviced that if you’ve indicated that you “like” certain wines, for example, and all of sudden you’re having wine company’s posts appear on your Facebook page, and you would prefer that that not happen, then you need to change your Facebook profile and security settings so that you’re no longer a direct marketing target.
  • She also said that Facebook is testing partner applications, i.e. with Pandora, in order to “profile” users. So if you have a Pandora membership, you may well notice adds appearing on Pandora that are directly related to things that you have indicated on Facebook that you “like.”
  • Kathy also reported that there are no longer Facebook “Fan Pages.” Now you “like” a company or a product and as soon as you “like” something you expose yourself to direct marketing from that group.
  • Kathy also talked about Facebook creating Community Pages out of users’ personal pages. And you can also start your own community page, and suggest friends “like” it.  But whether users “like” community pages or product or company or personal pages, user data is now mined for direct marketing as a result of the “like” button.

Julie:

  • Julie talks about having disabled her Facebook profile as a short-term experiment and not because of privacy issues and target marketing as a result of the “like” button.
  • She says she lost the love of Facebook because posts were becoming less personal, it wasn’t as much fun, and because she was spending too much time and feeling too dependent on Facebook as her networking portal.  However, despite this, she reactivated her profile after one week because she had something to “share.”

SuzAnn:

  • SuzAnn thinks all the changes are kind of scary because companies now have too much information about their target markets.
  • In particular, she feels that baby boomers, one of the fastest-growing user demographics on Facebook, will be scared off by the new lack of privacy.
  • She also expressed concern about the hyper-clickers, the people who “like” everything they see. She wonders if they’ll be spammed with advertising to the degree that their Facebook pages will turn into add portals for product, people and companies that they “like.”

Cori:

  • Cori reflected that with the degree to which you can target potential customers on Facebook with personalized adds, it’s actually a good time to advertise on Facebook!

Louise:

  • Brought astology insight into the discussion.  She said that both Uranus (which rules technology) and Jupiter (the largest planet in the solar system) are about to change signs and transition into Aries, the sign of newness, inititation and entrepeneurship.
  • Over the summer, she said, as a result of these planets partnering up in the early degrees of Aries, we’d see big and potentially benefic changes (Jupiter) in technology (Uranus)and that some people would embrace the changes and ride the vanguard and some people would opt out completely, i.e. disable their Facebook pages and unplug their computers.

Tips:

1. Be aware that when you click on Facebook’s “like” button you’re exposing yourself to direct marketing.

2. Check your Facebook privacy settings. And keep in mind that you do have the option to remove specific data from your facebook profile and page if you wish to protect yourself from direct marketing.

3. You may even wish to disable your Facebook profile if you have fears and concerns about your personal information being mined by companies for direct marketing.

4. On the other hand, if you have a product to sell, this is actually a great time to advertise on Facebook :0)

5. And get ready for an interesting summer, because technology is about to go through a revoultionary change!

Watch the divas to learn more!

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