A welcome cautionary note opened SXSWi today as Danah Boyd, a leading social media researcher, warned technologists not to disregard the users’ privacy as they build services that share ever more personal information with the public.
“No matter how many times a privileged straight white male tech executive tells you privacy is dead, don’t believe it,” she told upwards of 1,000 attendees during the opening address. “It’s not true.”
Ms Boyd focused on the recent rows around the launch of Google Buzz and Facebook’s resetting of its privacy features, citing the furore that surrounded each episode as evidence that web users are still very concerned about how much information they share with the public.
“What the outrage around Buzz shows us is that people care deeply about privacy,” she said. “Google messed up. They’re taking a hit in terms of the trust they have.”
Google got itself into trouble by confusing expectations, Ms Boyd said. By integrating Buzz with Gmail, Google tried to marry a social network — an inherently open system — with one of the most private spaces imaginable — the inbox.
And by offering users a pre-established network that might include not only friends but colleagues and strangers, Ms Boyd said Google overreached, assuming users were prepared to share with a broad network. “Just because something is publicly accessible, that doesn’t mean they want it to be publicised,” Ms Boyd said.
As for Facebook, Ms Boyd pointed to the fact that the new default settings made users share almost all their posts with everyone on the internet. “More and more technology companies are expecting that it’s okay to expose people tremendously, then back off,” she said.
The somber notes were a welcome antidote amidst the techno-optimism that permeates SXSWi. While Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla are bringing web users closer together and creating real value, they risk going a step too far, exposing information that was presumed to be private, and alienating the very early-adopters whose enthusiasm will be needed to make some of these features mainstream.
Ms Boyd closed with some sober words of advice for the assembled technologists. “Listen to your users,” she said. “Think through the implications of your decisions.” This may sound like obvious counsel, but it’s worth reiterating in light of recent events.
It is not enough to simply expect users to opt out if they don’t like the service. Instead, she implored technology companies to exercise caution as they develop new social media services.
“You are shaping the future,” she told the crowd. “How you handle the challenges of privacy . . . will affect a generation. Make sure you are creating a world you want to live in.”
