Rather than sensing mass outrage, the bow that I’ll put on Google’s practice of embedding cookies via Apple’s Safari is Some Harm, What Foul?
In case you missed it – and the point of this post is that you are far from alone – Google reportedly breached the privacy of millions of Apple Safari users by fooling the web browser into accepting tracking cookies it normally wouldn't take, according to PC World. http://www.pcworld.com/article/250213/googles_safari_tracking_debacle_reality_check.html According to the publication, “Google, however, says this is an unhappy accident and that Google never intended to track its users in this manner.”
Still, Google’s violation not only breaks the “contract” between Apple and its Safari users, it blows to pieces Google’s promises made to the Federal Trade Commission that "bars the company from future privacy misrepresentations."
How might the government entity punish Google? According to the Los Angeles Times, “if Google is found to have violated its agreement with the FTC, the company could face fines of up to $16,000 per day for each violation.”
Wow, $16,000 should get Google’s attention. It likely pays more than that daily for lunches in its cafeteria.
Now to the question of whether Web users care about their privacy. I use Safari on multiple devices and do feel “violated”. But will I change browsers because of this or operate under the assumption that the next browser I use will invade my space as well?
That decision has yet to be made.
In fact, I have been talking about privacy in this space for years. In 2010, I predicted that with more mobile advertisements would come questions and concerns about privacy. http://blogs.imediaconnection.com/blog/2011/01/02/assessing-the-last-set-of-mobile-predictions/
But six months later, Facebook, among many others, continues to be cited for lapses (if not downright intentional information sharing). An issue affected tens of millions of Facebook app users, including people who set their profiles to Facebook's strictest privacy settings.
Still, Facebook rolled on with a high-profile movie, appearance by Mark Zuckerberg as Time’s Person of the Year, and the site eclipsing Google as the most visited on the Web.
In my upcoming Mobilized Marketing book http://jeffhasen.com/pages/mobilized-marketing-book, Thom Kennon, senior vice president and director of strategy at Y&R, tells me that “privacy is delusional.”
More from Kennon in Mobilized Marketing:
“I don’t think for the last 70 or 80 years of consumerism have we enjoyed this Pollyannaish view of what privacy and data protection we were going to have. I don’t believe even aspirationally that it’s attainable.”
This privacy issue will go on long after you can read Kennon’s full comments May 1 when the book is released.
