Privacy be damned, I want my network!

Following up on yesterdays post about the plausibility of Yahoo's new social networking site to flourish given the possibility that cyber bullies, or for that anyone, has the ability to edit data on your profile wiki-style, is a report stating that most Facebook and Myspace users are OK with the sites selling thier personal information.

Many of the users of both sites seem pretty naive from what seems to be on the report, given that a large majority of overall users list their personal emails along with their real names (This one, for facebook at least, would defeat the purpose of the site if not, and as such makes a moot observation) on the sites, and there is also the ability to post phone numbers on facebook (I know some of my friends have done this....I could never bring myself to publicly post my phone number). Even knowing that the hosting sites sell this data to advertisers, most users are OK with it, so long as it allows them access to the social networking tools.

You can only get something if you end up paying for it in return, and apparently, online marketers have found at least one tool that consumers are willing to use and in return, give up some privacy. MySpace is taking it one step further using data mining tools to customize ads specifically to each of its users. Which makes sense, as if you only have a small window of opportunity to present ads and generate revenue without angering your target audience, you want to make sure you maximize the potential of returns.

So this can presumably be dubbed the good side of profile sharing on network sites in terms of privacy issues, as it may be. Intrusive, yes, but it isn't so intrusive that consumers are avoiding it. The bad side really hasn't reared its ugly head....yet. So long as advertising ads on the sites are the only use for the data mine, I think most users won't mind. It's when spammers, telemarketers, heck even employers can access what was once thought to be semi-private data between you and friends that the proverbial youknowwhat hits the fan.