Dec 1, 2009, Panel discussion/seminar on social media and its effects on public privacy etc.

Social Media Seminar Write-up || NVTC

1. Purpose of the Event:

This was a Social Media security discussion panel, focused on…transparency and responsibility with privacy and information sharing across networks and between people and agencies (advertising or government).

2. Attendees:

* From VP’s of security company’s to sales managers etc.
o Speakers:
+ Gerard (Jerry) Stegmaier(Moderator): Attorney; Intellectual property, public and private corporate governance, internet issues relating to privacy.
+ Pablo Chavez(Panelist): Managin Policy Councel, Google; advises and develops public privacy policy issues including content management and internet censorship
+ Ari Schwartz(Panelist): VP and COO of Center for Democracy and Tech; increasing individual control over personal and public information. Public access to gov info and privacy protections. Testifies before congress on these issues.
+ Tim Sparapani(Panelist): Director of Public Policy, Facebook; developing and implementing interaction with federal, state, and local governments; privacy and constitutional law.

3. Top Issues/takeaways form the event:

1. Social media in it’s current infancy needs to / is doing a good job of providing a sense of ethical responsibility to it’s users to hamper the need for security. People will try to write rules to constrain social media… the ills of new tech…cultural evolution, as with email, people must learn to use the tech wisely. Will breed smarter behavior with less regulation.

(If you share information more responsibly, there is less chance of the wrong info falling into the wrong hands.) Plus, Facebook also protects it’s users from malicious apps, by requiring their own coding language to be used for app creation.

2. Transparency with privacy policies is key, so the user knows if/what their data is used for and so that they are more responsible for what they share…thus taking some burden off the service (Facebook etc).

3. Social media is generating an “App Economy” where advertisements and applications for popular social media programs (Facebook, YouTube) and devices(mobile phones), that is bringing us into a new age where advertisements are more effective and less noticeably intrusive, and more likely to generate interest.

4. The challenge with such a new and open-ended form of media and communication is controlling and maintaining trust. Facebook and Google both discussed how every misstep create a huge hurdle to overcome with traditional media and government stepping in to attempt in guiding us along our new path. We need to be careful to get it right the first time so we don’t lose our customer base due to mistrust.

4. Overview: (Rough edit of my transcription notes from the talk)

Jerry: If you are a business, what is your sense to be socially responsible with a sense of the mass amount of data avail:

Ari: we have a set of laws that aren’t specifically focused on SM, ethically what are our responsibilities and how do we go about figuring that out. Questions about how we structure platforms that raise philosophical questions, privacy issues in particular. 3rd party control is questioned. Control of information and trust. FB is doing a good job. F&G do well with new techs, “Privacy Dashboard” building in ethical responsibilities into the platforms. How else do we deal with these issues. Ebay’s issues with controlling the platform when its consumer to consumer. Call and rush for regulations if we don’t jump on issues early…

Pablo: 2 problems to think about: business creating or managing the platform, you have to focus on questions of trust, being responsible with consumers information. Business using the platform: to use and market using the platform, separate set of privacy issues need to be thought about “what are our responsibilities when a 3rd party is talking about your products and services” new regulation tells bloggers they have to announce if they were paid for reviews, positive or negative. FDA looking at regulating products from the pharm perspective, discussion forum liability to manufacturer?

Jerry: How do free services rely on advertising, and what are the trends and features in the future of that.

Pablo: Google 99% of income from advertising, several trends to follow, behavioral advertising: based on activities the user has engaged in info taken from cookies and etc. challenges they face is that transparency with users, and users tend to engage in that social media norm of feedback. Intraspace advertising, pref. manager (google) trends what users do, inferences of the surfing activities, whilst allowing complete transparency.

Tim: facebooks model tries to distinguish between first and third parties…tends to be multiple parties present without consumers knowledge in the web, ads, data selling pulling etc, consumers need to be aware of that type of activity, FB has decided that the distinction matters, FB will never sell data. FB will regulate ads you get based on data you give them, but never give that data to 3rd parties. Targeted ads based on voluntary information given, not on information “taken”. Ought to be an alternate model to monitize the internet…to avoid ads… study shows 200/month to fund without advertisements, for common utilities like google and facebook. Act in the users best interests.

Ari: lots of diff kinds of advertising on internet (google, direct context advertising) privacy concerns are on surreptitious information collection with behavioral advertising. 50-80% of people have concerns about behavioral targeting model only 5% of advertising warrant that concern. Beacon: advertising model pulls purchases from other sites to go back to FB and “post” it on page, people have issues with that. People don’t like information collection.

Jerry wants Tim to talk about the Beacon Case study:

Tim: Beacon predates me but I have learned much from it, people really care about their privacy =#1 challenge and opportunity, and is a direction for many companies in this age. FB has learned to give control of the digital DNA to the consumers, with granular controls, user has control over every single piece of info’s privacy settings. Build in tools to regulate that yourself. Extraordinary innovation that paves the way for other companies, customers are demanding that kind of control, true privacy control over data.

Panel Questions:

Steve @ Netchoice: definition or use for media to click on ads. Relevancy, job #1 to click on ads for business models. How many pitfalls can be avoided by offering models to watchdogs-

Jerry: Where do you set the thermometer…

Pablo: its useful to run new products past certain people and is beneficial, but interaction with ads is a tremendous challenge…for instance with videos(YouTube Overlay ads) and attempting to monitise them. Call to action advertising on videos. Overlay, interaction etc. how to keep the user involved

Tim: people have a tendency to buy gear of teams they like and wear It proudly, people believe it says where they come from etc, similar to online space, people are constructing digital identities for themselves, letting others know who they are and what they are about. People tend to click on ads to ally themselves with certain organizations. People tie their own digital identities to these organizations, beyond typical advertising. What’s the value of someone “liking” Coke, people there to defend the brand, creates enormous value for those companies, free support.

Bruce Goldfeder: Post methodology, security between inter and external information coercion.

Tim: FB is able to create groups with admins with full access over security and who can have access…tools of signings and personal control over who is involved. Society and culture have to evolve to use these technologies wisely.

Ari: Lots of agencies block social media and they should adopt them, in a constructive sense. Digital signatures and authentification, people are excited for social media to set those terms, communities of control etc. haven’t had the platforms that could get this out there until now.

David: Bringing control to what people post to online structures: ethical impact of social networking, one profile for a diverse identity, separation of roles.

Ari: Context of privacy with kids compared to adults. Privacy(students are worried their school will see their content on social media apps.) from the university bothered the students more, that is their government. All based on context. And who has access to that. Compartmentalization in life, but the ethical dilemma for that on social media

Pablo: and technical dilemma as well, how to compartmentalize that information and control identities. How to keep them separate, or do we mix them. Tools that allow you to bifurcate your identity. Sociological perspective if you want to live separate lives. Who do you friend?

Brad: identity and authentication, anonymity is a bonus, but how does protection come into play:

Ari: Often we don’t talk about anonymity and privacy but how can that exist with the level of privacy our government has taken away(mentions the Bush wire tapping act). How do people have the ability to be anonymous when they need to be, and how do we catch the bad guys when we need to. How do we use social media to control that and assist while protecting.

Tim: FB’s design authenticated, by names… everything ascribable to namesakes. Maximize free speech with accountability. Pseudonymous speech. Some social media platforms are not well suited for that. Federated Identity.

Dave Wolf: Synergy: Along the lines of advertisements, was my privacy violated, etc is there a trend in advertising space providing indemnity back to advertisers?

Pablo, Ari, Tim: Yes.

Jerry: People are more interested in indemnity, better solutions for accountability between contracts and making sure advertisers and suppliers don’t

Ari: Same question with Apps and how they are screened and protected for liability structure. Users must be educated on platform and security. More education means making declarations on the strength of the securities etc.

Jerry: not an uncommon problem, app on my droid, is Verizon responsible or is google, or is the app maker. Whom is responsible? Policing, etc. very real and serious challenges, and they are evolving based on what has been happening today in the technology. Future is in policy talks. Sheer number is proof.

Sarah Rios: what do you proactively do to prevent crime escalating in instances of child creditors and domestic violence.

Pablo: Google works directly with federation protecting kids from exploitation and adult content. Cyber polling? Flag content etc. education is maximum, to generate responsibilities for users.

Tim: Suspect content, goes to nicmac(??), and law enforcement. Web wide issue on illegal content and how to control it ….FB created a list of predators and works with Domestic violence organizations. Scalability issues tho, control problems with huge amount of people “report” button. Constantly reviewed, FB employs people around the globe who review reported content.

Doug Fizer: Idea of gov agencies using for profit websites to deliver services through advertisements…sketchy role for gov, promoting business?

Tim: FB has special ToS for gov pages. Ads do not get run on those pages. Never monetized and data scrolled. So there is no endorsement based on that.

Ari: long history of gov working with commercial entities. Code of ethics on how gov ties are related to advertising etc. internet is a boon to gov agencies and ability for those agencies to get info out… gov agencies tag databases for google linking. Searchable databases. 85% of people get gov info through search engines. So there is a push from google to have gov sites site mapped, and not blocked, etc, but responsible use.

Jerry: Thanks everyone.

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So let’s discuss. I know this isn’t too well written, but Most of it was transcriptional. Thanks for reading! Discuss in comments!

 

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