Personal Privacy in a Digital World

I will preface this essay by saying I don’t devote a significant amount of time thinking about personal privacy. While I have adjusted my privacy settings once or twice on both Facebook and Google, in general, I try to not to do or say anything online that I wouldn’t be proud to tell my grandma about or see plastered in the New York Times. I’m definitely not perfect but that is the approach I try to take and
would advocate others to do the same.

I think people need to realize that this world is full of people that are not always looking out for your best interest. Business in today’s marketplace is often cutthroat and firms are looking everywhere to get an edge. “Scraping” for data as it is described in the WSJ article on RapLeaf is an expected evolution in the business of trying to research and analyze current (and potential) customers. It is naïve to think that companies that have access to our website history or our internet searches won’t try to sift through it for possible customer insights. RapLeaf’s claim that its goal is to create a “more personalizable world” for individuals seems a bit disingenuous to me.

While I think the government is behind on improving privacy policy regulation, I don’t think that will be the ultimate answer. Personal accountability is the first step but the other saving grace is our active press. Having investigative journalists looking into unethical (if not actually illegal) practices is something we should all appreciate. The increasingly connected world makes it hard to keep important news from going viral and I think more
and more companies are starting to put more emphasis on their ethics (in terms
of the see-saw that Professor Walls discussed today).

Below is a short clip
that summarizes the idea that it is getting harder for companies to keep
secrets:




As a marketer, we will always be expected to have the latest and greatest information on our current and potential customers. However, ethical questions will have to be answered. Most of corporate scandals of late have dealt with either an environmental scandal or accounting fraud; however, the Marketing Department is and will continue to be challenged with questions of what is “crossing the line”.

Perhaps I am being naïve now, but I think the standard I use for my own behavior (on and off-line) can be extended to marketers. Companies should be guided by the values of their employees, but also by the expectations of their customers and the general public. I think it is somewhat of a cop-out to only not do something because you are afraid your actions will be made public. However, in the absence of other standards (which is not usually the case), it should serve companies well to ask themselves if they would be okay telling their customers about the marketing techniques they are used.

Part of the difficulty is that so many of these experiences are new, not only for businesses, but also for consumers. Individuals’ sense of what they feel is overreach by companies is still very much in flux. Given this newness, companies can potentially get away with some missteps. However, despite the hyper-competitive business environment, I would advise companies to use discretion, always asking if they would be comfortable with having their strategies “outed” in a WSJ article.