Taking the 'Rap' For Facebook's Privacy Woes

The Wall Street Journal et al, Monday, October 25, 2010 11:53 AM

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Forget Facebook's disregard for privacy -- at least for now. The Wall Street Journal, which has run several stories questioning the social net's privacy policies -- has moved on to online tracking company RapLeaf. And it's not the only one.

Why the focus on RapLeaf rather than countless other tracking services? Because, along with tracking consumers' voter-registration records, shopping histories, social-networking activities and real estate records, among other information, RapLeaf records their full names and email addresses.

"Most trackers either can't or won't keep the ultimate piece of personal information--your name," reports The Journal. What's more, "The industry often cites this layer of anonymity as a reason online tracking shouldn't be considered intrusive."

And while RapLeaf claims it doesn't disclose consumers' names to clients for online advertising, just possessing real names means the company can build what The Journal calls "extraordinarily intimate databases on people."

GigaOm's Om Malik calls RapLeaf "the real culprit" behind the recent uproar over privacy and Facebook.

Specifically, "Rapleaf says it doesn't transmit personally identifiable data for online advertising, but the WSJ found that is not the case," Malik notes. "Rapleaf shared a unique Facebook ID to at least 12 companies and a unique MySpace ID number to six companies. Any sharing was accidental, the company said."

Yet, "A number of privacy experts said they believe Rapleaf is being disingenuous," CNNMoney.com reported late last week. "They noted that the company links users' names and e-mail addresses to many social networking profiles ... and sells that information to third-parties."

Under the headline, "The Creepy Company Compiling a File on Your Online Activity--Using Your Real Name," Gawker writes: "It's not easy to avoid being tracked online, for better or worse--and it may only be a matter of time before your name being part of your file becomes standard practice in the industry."

Whether that scenario comes to pass, or whether RapLeaf -- which has survived negative press in the past -- will fold under media pressure remains to be seen. Just in the last week, however, the company has toned down the degree to which it segments consumers -- for now.

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0 comments on "Taking the 'Rap' For Facebook's Privacy Woes".

1. Jamie Tedford from Brand Networks Inc.
   

   commented on: October 25, 2010 at 2:46 p.m.

   Nice investigative reporting. I agree, these guys deserve the rap. Here's their pitch copied directly from a blind email.

   Just wanted to let you know that our social media analysis reports are now available online. Given a list of customer emails, the Social Insight console provides an overview of your customers' demographics, social network memberships, online friend count, fan pages, and more. We're also working on making individual-level data available via this console, as well as the ability to advertise to your customers, fans, and their friends across the web.

2. Paula Lynn from Who Else Unlimited
   

   commented on: October 25, 2010 at 6:31 p.m.

   We are begging to be controlled. Your freedom to put all of your information on line is going to cost you more than your freedom.

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