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★ Facebook & Google: very different Big Brothers

As Facebook continues to spread its tentacles around the web, they are increasingly being compared to Google not only as a potential competitor in online advertising, but also on the privacy aspects of their services.

Venturebeat, to take one example, argues that Google could follow Facebook down the slippery slope of public by default, in Facebook and Google watch us whether we like it or not:

At the end of the day, there is no way a consumer can definitively tell what data any of these Internet companies store on them. We put our trust and faith in Google and Facebook to be responsible stewards of our information.

The new mass of data Facebook will soon be collecting on us opens the door to all kinds of ad targeting possibilities. And the competitive threat that unleashes may pressure Google to move in the same direction.

Facebook is betting that the personalized and social experiences it will be able to provide across the web will be profoundly valuable. Just be prepared to be watched.

Will this level of ad-targeting be accepted in the long run? Probably. I think Facebook’s strategy is brilliant, even though they are playing a very dangerous game by altering the nature of their service without properly informing their users. (Read my previous post on this)

But I don’t think the appropriate response for Google is to follow Facebook. Let me explain why.

Google has so far been very careful about using personal, private data for targeting. Overall, they have been much smarter than Facebook about privacy, launched several initiatives to build trust such as Google Dashboard and the Data Liberation front, and have maintained a track record of being trustworthy [1]. Christine Tran has just summarized this Facebook-Google comparison in a nicely documented piece, Facebook vs. Google: The fight over trust.

The key message? Google doesn’t try to confuse their users into being more public than they want to; Facebook does. Because of this difference, I’m more optimistic than Venturebeat. I still hope Google stays away from being as intrusive as Facebook.

Facebook and Google are still in different leagues when it comes to privacy [2]. In fact, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seems to believe that he is on a mission to change society. There may be positive aspects to that (as Facebook tries to market), but I think startups should change the world by offering a better alternative, not by trapping their users and dismissing their privacy.

Facebook and Google are both in positions to collect massive amounts of private information about us. In a sense, they are both Big Brothers who are watching us. But for me, Google is the big brother whose behavior I can trust, because I have not yet had a reason not to. Facebook is one that I’m no longer sure I can trust, because he is forcing/confusing us into sharing more that we want to.

I understand that trust is a very personal thing — so how do you feel about Facebook and Google? Which brand do you trust more? Can Facebook regain more trust? How?

Notes:

1. Except for one mistake during the launch of Google Buzz, which they immediately fixed afterwards. [↩]
2. Some even argue they aren’t in the same leagues at all. [↩]

06. May 2010 by Jean Friesewinkel
Categories: Privacy, Strategy | Tags: facebook, google, trust | 9 comments

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