• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, May 14, 2010

Nick Bilton in The New York Times tells us that Facebook's privacy policy is 5,830 words long; about 1500 longer than United States Constitution (another document nobody reads). To opt out of full disclosure of most Facebook information, it is now necessary to click through more than 50 privacy buttons, which then require choosing among a total of more than 170 options. Who cares? About 400 million people post all sorts of easily personally identifiable bits of information on Facebook all the time, from photos to their actual names and often addresses. Why is there any expectation of privacy on Facebook? They might as well have a big iron archway over the sign up page that declares "Abandon All Hope of Privacy All Ye Who Enter Here."

On the frontlines of the privacy battle, the proposed Boucher bill would require publishers who use third-party data gatherers (like ad networks) to provide clear opt-out instructions before placing a cookie on a user's PC or Mac. Shawn Riegsecker, president of Centro, opines that "many users will simply opt-out instead of bothering to educate themselves on the details."

Although there are still lots of folks for whom the Internet is a "new medium" and they fail to understand what the collection of anonymous user data via cookies is all about, they are few and far between. And they are the same people who when a stranger calls on the phone and says "I am your nephew, in jail in Canada and in need of bail money..." they send it.

I would contend that the vast majority of people online understand that they are being tracked in one way or another and are more fearful of hackers getting into their personal files (or porn collections) or downloading a virus that sends e mails to their entire address book inviting them to buy painkillers online at a discount (no prescription needed). They don't bother to adjust the privacy settings in their browsers that would prevent cookie setting and they generally don't bother to opt out of anything other than spam. I had a client a while ago that put an opt out in every single ad they served -- and guess what -- after a month, the opt-out rate dropped from the historical body count of those who had to go to a specific place like the NAI to opt out.

A cottage industry has grown up around the notion of online privacy, and it is those who earn their living now making this an issue who are pushing the legislative process in Washington. I think the relative gentleness of the Boucher bill on the online ad industry is a tacit acknowledgement of that. The average man on the street doesn't give online privacy five minutes of thought unless one of the "privacy advocates" (i.e.: those who now make money taking this position) drives it into the newspapers. Because if that guy on the street really did care, he would take action on the hundreds of ways his personally identifiable information is being collected, bought and sold OFFLINE. But he doesn't.

On the other hand, for those few-and-far-between men on the street who do care about PII, it doesn't help that Facebook and others make it so complicated to access and understand and act on their privacy settings. What is the big deal about putting prominent notice on your site that says, "Hell yeah, we are setting cookies on you. Since you ain't inclined to pay for content, we have to cover our costs with adverting and tracking cookies are part of the deal, bucko." Is it a matter of sites not wanting to give up valuable real estate for those notifications? They have tons of banner ads they are essentially giving away to ad networks for pennies, why not use them for privacy notices?

Is the fear that users will actually opt out? Who cares? Why serve ads to folks who hate seeing them? Kiss them goodbye. They are the same people who fast forward through ads on DVRs or mute them with their remotes. And they have probably installed ad-blocking software anyway. The bottom line is that most people won't bother and you will still have a respectably large audience that doesn't mind seeing relevant ads. Would that not be a great page in your selling PowerPoint? "We only serve ads to people who want to see them."

Then maybe somebody will give you a $5 CPM instead of .10 cents.