Let me be forgotten!

       The European Union is placing Facebook and Google in the eye of the storm. The battle for online privacy has been building up for the last couple of years. Last March 13th the European Commission gave these two major corporations an ultimatum. European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Viviane Reding, drafted what could be named as The Charter of Fundamental Rights for the Online User. She declared that to protect users’ privacy online, four pillars should be followed:

1. The right to be forgotten- making it a rule that all Social Networks and Searching Engines give the option to erase our personal data completely.

2. Transparency- citizens must be informed at all moments of the use that is being made of their personal data and by whom.

3. Privacy by default- and not the other way round. So that users don't have to "decode" the web to find the "Privacy Settings" application.

4. Protection regardless of data location- meaning that it’s the users’ location and not the sites' the one that establishes what legislation applies. If a service is offered in Europe it must abide by the European Law.

Both Facebook and Google have a long way to go before they can be self-defined by these four pillars. "Article 29 Working Party" (an advisory body of the Commission) declared that Facebook changed its default privacy settings to those of "open status" days after they attended a plenary meeting held by the European Commission in online privacy matters. It seems like the blue giant has been playing around in the European field trying to elude all the measures. 

Both Facebook  and Google have been issuing patents on new applications that put in jeopardy users privacy (see Curated Search and Face Recognition respectively). In their race for technological supremacy these sites aren't realizing how privacy is being placed in jeopardy. At this rate we could be the characters in Jorge Orwells' "1984" science fiction novel! 
In order to put control to this situation regulations must tighten. The Article 29 Working Party insists on some basic measures that would help improve online privacy:

• Homepages should have a direct link to a complaint site where users could give their opinion on covering data protection issues.
• Sites should obtain personal consent of users to send them target advertising.
• Data on sensitive topics such as race, religion or sexual orientation should be completely private.
• Individuals should be allowed to adopt a pseudonym.

And of course, special attention was given to the gathering of minors personal data due to the strong influence these sites have on young adults.


It looks like the European Union is going to give these sites a tuff time. Maybe someone else will support the cause. Check this link for interested affiliations to Facebook Privacy Groups  :)

Links:

• "EU privacy watchdogs say Facebook changes 'unacceptable'",by Out-Law.com. The Register

• "Facebook Feeling More Privacy Pain in Europe", Mathew Ingram. Gigaom

• "The Review of the EU Data Protection Framework" by Viviane Reding. Europe Press Release

• Hot Girls Wage Lawsuit Against Facebook Privacy, Babelgum Comedy

• Article 29 Working Party 1

• Article 29 Working Party 2

Face to Face: Target Advertising

Forget about John Anderson wanting to escape from the Precogs in Minority Report. This is just us, humble consumers wanting to have our own privacy. 

The debate is on. Facial recognition is the latest trend in digital technologies and marketers can only look at it in awe for what is expected to come. Google has already published its patent on Facial Recognition with Social Network aiding. This application will allow Smartphones to search Social Networks for matching images of the person pictured and sending back the requested name.

This will certainly ring a bell for Advertisers. It seems like Google is doing all the research work for them by creating the largest database ever. Target advertising could go a step further by connecting all this information to a face profile and interacting with consumers on the bases of that knowledge. Google AdSense (Google’s targeted online ads) has already created a major increase in websites earnings by transforming passive viewers into active shoppers (conversion rate). Target advertising has shown very positive results up until now. What will happen when ads communicate with us in a totally personalized way? Are mass marketing techniques left for oblivion?

As a last thought... imagine you go to any store,
lets say, Victoria Secret and an animation greets you with a list of your latest purchase: Bombshell, Miracolous or Super Sexy bras! That would be a little too embarrassing.