Privacy: I like to think that I can use the Internet to fuel my obsession with the old TV shows "My Mother the Car" and "Cop Rock" (for the uninitiated, two creative, very short-lived TV shows) without having that obsession broadcast across my Facebook page, my Google+ site, or anywhere else I go. I like to think that but I would be wrong.
It seems lately that not a day goes by in which we read about one tech giant or another who mines data from our emails or our app purchases or our searches to sell that data to advertisers who then use it to place ads that show up later in our email box or next to our apps or when we use search engines. On its face, this seems innocent enough. These sites are searching what you spend time with so they can connect you with marketers who have something that matches your interest. Facebook, Pinterest, and email, are all electronic formats which makes it relatively easy to mine content. That is how the boy and girl geniuses at Facebook and Google see it.
Many people, however, see it as an invasion of privacy. Thinking of email like mail from the Post Office, many people expect the same privacy when an email or IM is addressed to them as they get when a letter is addressed to them. It is common to see stories of a politician, teacher or other public figure who forgot that nothing is really private on the Internet and posted or tweeted or otherwise made public pictures or personal peculiarities that they meant to keep private.
I believe that privacy will be a currency of distinction between marketers in the next decade or so, just as specialization and personalization of messages were the currency of distinction in the 90's and early 21st century. The marketer that figures out a way to keep customer information truly safe (or at least get us to believe that it is) will gain a significant advantage. The marketer that figures out how to make her customers feel "data secure" will be able to collect more data and more unique data than her competitors. The marketer who can make his customers and prospective customers feel safe sharing their personal information, will see fewer customers leave to try competitors, will enjoy greater customer loyalty and will have less need to sell customer information.
Some companies seem to have already identified privacy as important issue to customers, although I haven't seen any that are using privacy as a competitive advantage. Rather they are using lack of privacy as a competitive weapon, charging lack of privacy against their competitors. For example, Microsoft now tells us we will get "Scroogled" if we use Google for our email, citing Google's practices of mining emails for content.
One question that remains is how will consumers react. To date, we have reacted to privacy issues much like we have responded to gas prices. Everyone talks about how out of control the price of gas is as they fill the gas tank of their giant SUV. Privacy issues have caused some tempests in Facebook's teapot, but hasn't really impacted the number of people who log onto the site in an almost religious fervor. Perhaps more ads like Microsoft's will have some impact. Perhaps not.
Regardless of whether they use it as a competitive advantage or a competitive weapon, regardless of whether consumers revolt or stay put, I believe we will hear more and more about privacy from companies in the coming years. I think privacy will be one of the ways small and mid-sized tech companies will be able to squeeze out a competitive advantage against the giants in the industry. I believe creating true data privacy and security is and will remain a truly sustainable competitive advantage.
Just don't tell anyone that I'm going to go watch Cop Rock!
