As we enter an age where everything is tracked and stored, privacy is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity. In this age, the government ins falling farther and farther behind in technology. Therefore, a 1984-like world is becoming increasingly unlikely. However, individual companies - especially in the web industry - are storing growing amounts of data upon each of us. Companies that understand the importance of privacy can win the trust of their users. Increased trust of course translates into exponential increases in return visitors and more referrals. Due to these great benefits, it can be surprising that more web 2.0 websites don’t hold their privacy cards closer to their core. However, it is hard to play your cards right in this complex game because different situations require different levels of privacy.
Flickr
Flickr uses an interesting approach to privacy - which fits perfectly with the idea of photo sharing. Instead of specifically sharing a photo with individuals, you can share a photo with specific groups. This acts a lot like physical photo sharing. You might laugh about those photos of you doing stupid things in a bar with your friends. However, you wouldn’t want for your mother to get a hold of those photos. Likewise, you might not want your friends looking at the photos of you as a baby; but they would be perfect for sharing with the family. Flickr uses a group privacy method which is perfect for the photo medium.
As apposed to Flickr, Google gives you far greater control over your privacy. You chose exactly who can see your calendar or read through that TPS report. Since most of Google’s services are either business-related or especially personal - this approach makes sense. You don’t want the whole company able to read a memo to your boss. However, this method also makes it harder to share data with a multiple people easily. Google uses an individual privacy method which gives you complete control over who can see your information.
The Future
Any privacy scheme you create will have its shortfalls. Some will be too restrictive and some will be too public. However, with some thought, you can create a privacy scheme that will work well for your business. For web applications, I would ideally see a combination of both group and individual privacy. When you add contacts, you would be able to “tag” them as friend, family, high school classmate, etc. With contacts in place, you would be able to share your media by either entering individual contacts or a tag. Whenever creating a service or application that will be deployed across the internet, it is important to think about how best to manage users privacy.
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