Infographics: Social Media Privacy

Just as CAN-SPAM forever changed the email marketing industry, we’re due for some hefty regulation to be applied in the social media and mobile marketing space. While I’m not sure that the industry is in a sad state as the infographic below insists, I will defend the industry since it’s incredibly young and truly a new frontier. Tools and information have never been as available as they are today. I believe responsible marketers are utilizing this information – not to spy on consumers – but to create personalized experiences for them.

My biggest concern is disclosure. Just as food requires nutritional information be published in a specific format, I believe that we need a universal format of disclosure of data that is developed and agreed upon by the industry. Consumers will never sit down and read terms of service agreements and privacy policies. The language is practically unintelligible… sometimes on purpose. Marketing technology companies are the bridges between the consumer and advertiser, and must be responsible and accountable for how they protect and share that information.

Social Media and Privacy: The relationship between social media and privacy has long been a controversial one, but with recent privacy breaches, ever-changing privacy settings and an overall increase in the things we share in social media, there is now renewed attention to the troublesome topic. With consumers becoming more and more concerned about protecting their privacy in the social media era, social networks must make privacy a priority in order to keep consumers as fans and followers.

If there’s one message in this infographic, it’s that consumers don’t have a clue how their data is being utilized. That’s where we need to focus the most attention!


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