As social media users, we have all gotten used to accepting less privacy as a necessary evil for social networking sites. When you sign up for a new social networking service, checking off that Terms of Use Agreement checkbox means that “yes, I trust you to do the right thing when it comes to sharing my information.”And, social networking sites usually take this to mean whatever makes sense for them.Especially when they are introducing a new feature, they would like to interpret it to mean, “surely, you must want to use our new service since you haven’t deleted your account.”
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| Google Is Vowing Not To Repeat Buzz’s Mistakes, And It Shows How Google Has Designed/Launched ‘+1′; Note The ‘Publicly’ and ‘Undo’. |
Well, that was yesterday’s interpretation.No more bending the privacy rule to bootstrap the newly launched service.Thanks to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Google’s bungled attempt to launch Buzz by automatically signing up all Gmail users, now all social networking sites will think twice before stretching the privacy rule and determining the default options.
The other day, the FTC made its first ruling against the floundering social networking site, Google Buzz, to enforce a third-party privacy audit every two years for the next 20 years.
What’s interesting is that FTC’s complaint includes finer points on how not to design an interface.The 8-page FTC complaint points out that “the controls that would allow the user to change the defaults were confusing and difficult.”Translation:no more deceptive tactics like making the Default setting to share more and burying the Privacy Settings link deep within the site.
We are already seeing some signs of Google taking this lesson to the forefront of their Google +1 design (Google’s interpretation of Facebook’s Like “thumbs-up” button).Here’s what Google is doing differently with +1:
1. Silent launch
Chances are you have not heard of Google +1.That’s not too surprising.Google has not made a lot of noise about its new social search enhancement. They are underplaying its significance and released it as an experimental feature, which is an opt-in only service for now.Compare this with the big splash Google made with Buzz.
2. Clear user feedback that everything is shared by default
Google is providing clear feedback to users that any link a user endorses will be shared with everyone else.Whenever a user clicks the ‘+1′ button, Google displays this privacy setting for you.
| Google Is Hiding ‘+1′ Tab From Public View By Default; It Looks Like Google Learned The Lesson From Buzz |
3. ‘+1′ tab is not shown to everyone by default
Once you opt in to try Google +1, you will start seeing the ‘+1′ tab showing up on your Google profile page.And, it’s not shown to everyone else by default.This default value is clearly shown to the user when s/he opens the ‘+1′ tab.
So, don’t give up on Google and their social search.This time around, it looks like you’ll also get better privacy controls with the help of the FTC.That will certainly be welcome news to all users.
What do you think? What do you think of the FTC’s complaint? Have they gone far enough, and do you think Google’s taking enough action? Let us know.
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