Following up on yesterday's post about German regulators growing impatience with Facebook's privacy policies, we now have news of a Canadian class action. According to the the most recent report:
The suit contends that Facebook subjected [the Plaintiff] to a breach of privacy and the misappropriation of his personal information. It also alleges that Facebook intentionally used his information for commercial purposes, calling the company's actions "malicious, deliberate, and oppressive."
Actually, Malicious, Deliberate and Oppressive LLP would make an excellent name for a law firm, perhaps as co-counsel with Poor, Nasty, Brutish and Short LLP. You see - I can never stop thinking about branding!
In any event, beyond the merits of this case (and Facebook, as might be expected, believes the case to be frivolous), these recent developments raise an interesting question: are lawsuits relating to social media privacy practices simply inevitable?
The answer, unfortunately, is almost certainly yes. Consumer protection statutes in many states, and in a variety of other nations, are intentionally composed to capture a broad range of malevolent behavior. As we all know, one of the real values in social media is in capturing information about the public. The capture and use of data can often be spun (whether legitimately or not) as somehow predatory or deceptive. Thus, the inevitability of lawsuits.
That does not mean, however, that social media should be off the table. In fact, the correct response is almost exactly in opposition to that view. There is no way to completely eliminate risk in any activity that does not involve sitting alone in a padded room. Social media engagement involves a significant potential opportunity, despite the risks. Rather than run away, we should recognize that the risks are not large and, more importantly, are manageable. When we systematically approach the ways in which we use and interact with social media, it becomes quite easy to identify the risks we are taking. By modifying our behavior or pricing in the risk to the cost of our effort, we can easily manage whatever additional risks we have tkane upon ourselves.
Moreover, as part of the equation, we must also consider the risk we take by doing nothing - for not engaging with social media may present an even larger risk than anything we might do on our Facebook page.