“In the future everyone will have 15 minutes of privacy.”

For now, Facebook efforts to own the new social web are facing  a backlash from its blatant invasion of your privacy (and the privacy of your friends). The company has made it ever-challenging to keep control of personal data on the side of consumers using its services. With changing updates coming in rapid succession, defaults set at opt-in, it’s easy for consumers to not know, or be confused about, what they are agreeing to share and to disclose.  For Facebook, their trappling of privacy is another rung in their effots to control data, remember it wasn’t that long ago that Facebook asserted content rights over nearly all data: writing, photos, art, etc.

While you might use Facebook for personal relationships, the complexity its privacy policy and consumer concern may translate to businesses using a Facebook platform like Facebook Open Graph. As a business will you be able to answer your customers concerns about how Facebook and how you are using their data? Will Facebook’s challenges translate onto your brand and consumer trust? These are important question to ask (and answer).

But start here, do you know how complex has Facebook’s privacy options gotten?  See for yourself: (prepared by the visual team at the New York Times):

Now how are consumer supposed to easily navigate the complex privacy settings?  In an increasingly complex social web, consumers are right to question just how their data is collected, used and ultimately shared. Facebook should make it easier and more transparent to understand how their data is being shared. If Facebook becomes a company that consumrs don’t trust, what will it mean for the whole social web? And what will it mean to you?

We get asked a lot about the demographics of different social media channels.  So we were happy to discover Flowtown.com’s visual chart of top social media channels.  While it doesn’t provide all the answers or information – including key questions like, “how many of the users of the channel are in the U.S.?” – it does provide a great visual breakdown of the basic consumer profile.

Source: www.flowtown.com