Putting The PR in Privacy

Privacy has become a huge issue on the web with the recent explosion of social networking and social media.  Many even say that Privacy is dead, but that’s an issue for another discussion.  One of the most overlooked areas of privacy is the Public Relations fallout. Many of the biggest debacles include Facebook, AOL, Google,etc.  Here are some PR tips when it comes to dealing with Privacy. 

1.  Make Sure You Clear The Air- Many times a privacy issue comes up and everyone gets the facts wrong.  The telephone game is played, distorting the message.  It goes from some of your information may not be as private as you thought to everything is becoming public.  The first thing you should do is focus on getting a unified message out to as many people as possible.  Focus on the highly critical blogs and publications.  They would rather print corrections, than be caught as a source of misinformation.
2.  React Fast, But Not Blindly-  Something needs to be changed in your application and fast.  It usually happens to be either a) getting rid of the feature all together or b) adding more granular privacy controls.  Don’t have a knee jerk reaction, or you may compromise the actual purpose and effect of the new feature.  Work for a compromise- A feature that provides privacy, but is still a new powerful tool for your users.
3.  Have Someone Important Respond-  When you finally make a decision on what will be done about the decision, there needs to be an important face to the response.  I list the Facebook Beacon debacle below.  One key factor in their response was having Mark Zuckerberg,CEO, respond on their blog, NOT a PR bunny.  The transparency and sincerity NEEDS to be there from someone important.
4. Refer To Your Privacy Policy-  Remember that document your lawyer helped you create that refers to privacy?  Never thought it’d come in handy, right?  Well, refer to that document and update it, if need be.  This is a contract with your users.  Uphold your end of the bargain, and remind users of that.  Seeing things on paper, and knowing it’s in the privacy policy is actually calming.

In the past year or so, tons of Privacy PR disasters have come about.  Here are some of the top picks:

•  Google Reader Shared Items Ruins Christmas
• Facebook Beacon Woes
• AOL Search Result Data Being Leaked and Correlated to Actual Users
• Facebook NewsFeed Debacle  
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