Category Archives: privacy

February 23, 2012

Should You Remove Your Google Search History Before Google’s New Privacy Policy Takes Effect?

By Giselle Bisson
Google 的貼牌冰箱（Google refrigerator）

Google knows when you've been sleeping, knows when you're awake and even knows what you've been eating. Isn't that a little TMI?（Photo credit: Aray Chen)

You’ve probably noticed this message on Gmail, Google, You Tube and all of the other Google-owned services you use lately. And like most of us, you probably clicked and ignored it.

We’re changing our privacy policy. This stuff matters.

If you do click “learn more,” you get this message:
“Our new (privacy) policy covers multiple products and features, reflecting our desire to create one beautifully simple and intuitive experience across Google.”
What that really means is that beginning on March 1, 2012, all of your data is being interconnected across all Google products which include the Chrome browser, Google Voice, Google Docs, Gmail, You Tube and their social networking service, Google+. This information can be culled into a profile that knows almost everything about you — what you watch, read, eat, buy, your health concerns, your sexual orientation, your politics, your finances, your friends, who you talk to and how long you spoke to them, even your location at the time you sent that message.
According to Google, they know your wi-fi access points too.
Google uses this information mainly to provide you tailored content — and in highly-targeted data for their advertisers. Some of this data is sold to corporations.
Last week, while attending the SFMusic Tech conference, I got a demonstration of an API (Application Programming Interface) technology that tracks your computer’s location and IP address and lots of other personal data. The man who demonstrated this to me showed me the code generated, and how this information, which includes the IP address of your posts in social media, is sold to their customers, which include services like Intelius.com and other corporations.
It’s difficult to predict now how that information might come to haunt you at some point in the distant future that you can’t even imagine today.
In December, I was at a cocktail party at the very lavish and beautiful Silicon Valley home of a successful man who does investigative research for major law firms. Essentially, data mining. And what he told me was pretty fascinating.
“Nothing you do or say on the Internet or in email is private.” In fact he said, “If you don’t want something uses as evidence in a court of law, never, never put it in email.”
As a PR professional, I always tell my clients there is no such thing as “off the record” when talking to the press. But now, in the era of Internet and social media, we must remember there is not such thing as “off the record” on the Internet either.
So if you want your personal information “off the record” you need to take responsiblity for it. Because services like Google want to encourage you to share and interlink as much personal data as possible.
Yesterday, the Electronic Frontieers Foundation, which acts like the ACLU of the Internet to protect individual privacy rights, issued this bulletin:

“On March 1st, Google will implement its new, unified privacy policy, which will affect data Google has collected on you prior to March 1st as well as data it collects on you in the future. Until now, your Google Web History (your Google searches and sites visited) was cordoned off from Google’s other products.

If you want to keep Google from combining your Web History with the data they have gathered about you in their other products, such as YouTube or Google Plus, you may want to remove all items from your Web History and stop your Web History from being recorded in the future.”

For example, when you play certain video clips on You Tube, Google places a long term cookie on your computer. What this cookie could be used for in the future is anyone’s guess, but you might be better off not getting it in the first place.

According to the civil rights organization, ACLU this week:

“…Keep in mind the fact that any data Google collects and stores is available not only to other corporations who buy it from the data giant, but also to the government. The laws governing our digital privacy are woefully inadequate and in some cases incredibly invasive, allowing for police access to our data even if they have no evidence that we’ve done anything wrong.“

I always recommend using a private P.O. box and a voicemail number when entering personal data into online forms and shopping sites protect yourself from potential identity theft. You may particularly want to protect your identity if you are a public figure, musician, performer, CEO or celebrity.

It all depends on how much you value your personal privacy and if you can foresee any time in the future when your search history, email or other Internet data could be supoenaed and used as evidence.

Whether you are large business or a solopreneur, that could have huge implications sometime in the future that you just can’t predict today.

Here’s the Google privacy policy. Take time to read it. Don’t just dismiss it. As Google says: This stuff matters.
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1 comment   |  tags: , , , , | posted in citizen journalism, damage control, Google Wave, privacy, search engine optimization, seo, social media, you tube

March 7, 2011

What’s in a name? Everything!

By Giselle Bisson

I was talking to a client the other day who wanted more visibility. They had a hideously long URL for their company website.

I rolled my eyes. I immediately knew they were doomed to failure unless they changed their name.

I asked: “Is there any way you can find a shorter url?”

My prospective client hemmed and hawed about how attached he was to his ridiculously long company name.

There’s a reason why Google and Yahoo succeeded — and a host of other earlier search engine contenders like NorthernLights and AltaVista bombed.

There’s a reason why YouTube won the video wars and early contenders like, “uh, um, uh, whats their name, I forgot” failed.

Because YouTube is a freakin’ awesome brand. It says what it does. It has attitude. It’s memorable. You can spell it. It rhymes with things. It’s unique. It works in other languages and other cultures.

When I named my business, I spent an entire rainy day on Go Daddy typing things in at random until I found “Visibility Shift.”

Even though it’s not short, it’s memorable, it says exactly what it is.

And it’s relevant to my consulting practice, which is about shifting your visibility to a new level. I was absolutely floored when I discovered such a great website name was even available — and for $7.99.

There are several reasons you want to take time to find a truly memorable stand out URL:
- easier to type – a long or unmemorable url discourages people
- memorable - (One word is best. Two words are ok. Three is just too much.)
- Searchability (SEO) - A name that isn’t unique is going to bring up millions of search results in Google. You want a unique URL so you are the first and only hit in Google, without having to pay $$$$ to Google for adwords.
- International localization - remember the web is global and your name has to translate easily into other languages — so it’s better if it’s not a word in any language.  Run your name past some friends who speak other languages and some translation software and make sure it doesn’t translate into something embarrassing. (The Chevy Nova flopped in Mexico because “No Va” means “Won’t Run.”)
- Put less words on your site, more pictures. Especially remember that the web is international and words need to be translated.  So the fewer words, the more universal your message is.  Learn from the success of big brands like Apple and Google who take a less is more approach.
-  It doesn’t have to be a .com — You can be successful with a .us, .tv, etc. For example, Delicio.us.
- Groupon is successful in large part because their name rocks. “Group + coupon.” Brilliant. Memorable. Unique. Short. Tells you what it is.
- Get your name first before you spend time and money branding it. Changing your name later is very costly and it means you are undoing all the work you did on public relations, marketing and social media outreach.
- VCs look at your brand and name as a big reason to invest. A great logo, web design, business card, brand and name are almost as important as the product or technology behind the brand.
- Think about web branding when you name your products — and your kids, too. I’m grateful that my mother, very ahead of her time, gave me a name that is so unique that I go to the top of Google. Check that name out in Facebook, Twitter and Google and make sure it’s available. (The reverse applies if you want to protect your privacy — then John Doe is the way to go.)
- Consider adding a unique middle name to your name that describes what you do so you stand out. (ie: David “Avocado” Wolfe is a speaker in the health food field.)
This advice applies to any personal or corporate brand — a musician, band, artist, writer, book title or film. Choose your name carefully and snap up the URL as soon as you can, even if you end up sitting on it for years before you get your project started.
For more information about naming, visit Name Wire a blog about naming.

2 comments   |  tags: , , | posted in blog, bootstrapping, Facebook, personal branding, privacy, public relations, renegade marketing, search engine optimization, seo, shameless self promotion, social media, Twitter, Uncategorized, viral, website

October 20, 2010

Facebook Lessons from “South Park” — Never play Farmville!

By Giselle Bisson

Everything you need to know about Facebook is in this darkly funny episode of “South Park.”

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Kyle “friends” the wrong person on Facebook.  Now all of his friends are unfriending him. His situation is desperate.

His father and even grandma start hassling him for not friending them.  Frustrated and tired of wasting his life online, he attempts to delete his Facebook profile, but gets sucked into the the inner Tron-like vortex of Facebook, where he’s forced to into exile in Farmville.

I mention this South Park episode, because it’s a biting satire about the ways that Facebook and life begin to become inexorably intertwined.

When you start a profile on Facebook, you enter into a new level of relationship with your “real world” friends and business connections.  They begin to expect you to actually read and respond to them. It’s a time commitment that can start to feel like you’ve been sucked into the Matrix and no longer have time for the Real World.

Adding the wrong friends can diminish your status–or cause your higher profile friends to “unfriend” you. Forget to check “in a relationship,” and it will inevitably lead to offline drama with your girlfriend.

And if you neglect to “friend” someone, they’re sooooo offended.  Especially people you don’t want to show your profile to, like Grandma.

“Friends shouldn’t be some sort of commodity for status,” says Stan, wisely, but it’s too late. He’s trapped in the Matrix of Facebook, where everyone (even Grandma) expects him to respond to their pokes — and Facebook won’t let him delete his profile.

2 comments | posted in Facebook, privacy, social media, Uncategorized

September 28, 2010

Should Facebook add more “in a relationship” options? Or should we just be discreet?

By Giselle Bisson

Is it tacky to announce your relationship status on a Social Network?

Move over Brad and Angie! Now with Facebook, you too can be as embarrassingly public with your infidelities as a Hollywood celebrity!

Unless it’s really going to benefit your business or career — announcing your new relationship status is probably not a good idea in a public forum. And it’s a really, really bad idea if you care about your career reputation.

Personally, I’d like to see people use more tact, thoughtfulness and discretion before they click any “In a Relationship” button out here in Facebook-land.”

Many of my solidly married friends don’t even announce their relationship status on Facebook.

But seems that people who just hooked up two weeks ago at a party are quick to brag about how in love they are and click that: “In a Relationship” button.

And the brutally honest and much more realistic: “It’s complicated.”

I even know a woman who clicked “In a Relationship” when her “boyfriend” was a personal ad pen pal who lived in another state and they hadn’t even met yet.

Social Currency and trust is what it’s all about in the new era of Social Networks. Our network is our net worth. Consider how your actions will be regarded in terms of your overall trustworthiness and “flake factor” before you post anything in a social forum. Relationships come and go, but reputations linger in Cyberspace forever.

I see grown, middle aged adults on Facebook like dumping their ex-spouse for someone they hooked up with a few weeks ago and then announcing and bragging about their new love affair publicly on Facebook.

It can inspire some incredible cruelty and tastelessness. Or what many call: “Facebook Drama.”

Perhaps I am being a bit old fashioned and “Miss Manners” here by suggesting that we wait six months at minimum, until relationships are solid — just as one might want to wait 3 months before announcing they’re pregnant, or waiting until they have an offer letter in hand before announcing a new job.

Today, someone posted this on Facebook:

“I am seeing someone, but that is not an option. Here there’s ‘its complicated’ — but that it is not. And there is ‘in a relationship’ but we are not there yet. We are trying to go slow, but I want a way to know Iam not available but am very interested in someone. Might that change?”

Do you think Facebook should add a new relationship status?

Facebook is considering some new “In a relationship” options. What do you think? Here are some options that readers of “All Facebook” have suggested:

- need a rebound

- in a rebound relationship

- hate my ex and need a rebound

- off the market

- common law marriage

- seeing someone

- confused

- stalkers not wanted

- separated, not looking

- serial dater

- cruising

- just looking

And…

- “I gave up.”

3 comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in damage control, Facebook, privacy, public relations, shameless self promotion, social media

March 24, 2010

Even the richest men in the world can’t maintain Internet privacy.

By Giselle Bisson

Somtimes you don't want attention. How do you bury unwanted news in the search engines?

A gossipy story about Google CEO Eric Schmidt  has been making the rounds on Twitter today.  It’s old news — about his “break up” with Steve Jobs from a pay phone while he was on the lonely road to Burning Man in 2007.

But what’s fascinating and newsworthy about this story is that even if you’re the CEO of Google, and one of the richest men on earth, you can’t protect your privacy in the search engines!

Schmidt was also unsuccessful in getting his ex-girlfriend to permanently remove her tell all blog from Google’s own Blogger.

Google’s own FAQ states:

We run into a lot of people who think that Google runs the web and controls all the sites on it, but that’s really not the case. The sites in Google’s search results are controlled by those sites’ webmasters.

The moral of this imoral story? Even the CEO of Google can’t remove negative publicity from Google.

So if you don’t want unwanted attention to linger, forever, in the search engines and on the web, what can you do?

There’s a cheap PR trick I’ve used with clients that can help you bury news you don’t want people to find. Flood the web with good news of your own by sending out tons of free press releases (and paid releases on PR Newswire or PR Web) filled with feel-good feature “stories” with the same keywords embedded in them that searchers will likely use to find the negative story.  This turns the “needle in a haystack” factor of Google in your favor.

Eventually you’ll knock the bad review so far down the ranks in Google that only the most intrepid researcher will be able to find it.

The other technique? Ignore it, and eventually the fickle public will be twittering about the next scandal and it will be as stale as a Tiger Woods story.

Tiger who?


Leave a comment   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in damage control, press release, privacy, seo, social media, Twitter

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