Privacy

Privacy is an interesting topic. Every company has a "privacy policy" and we all have private information. Yet, we are, as a culture, all too eager to willingly give up the lion's share of our private lives. I am not passing judgement on this, just making an observation today.

Last week Google rolled out its new privacy policy. If you read the words around the policy they say something to the effect that the changes will not affect your privacy per se, they will just share your habits, information, key words, etc. with all of their affiliated sites in order to make your "online experience more meaningful". You should read this to mean that any time you use a Google product (YouTube, Blogger, Gmail, Google Groups, etc.), Google is watching and recording what you do. They will then use that information to post ads, make page suggestions, etc. to make the price of their ads go up. Its a brilliant move by Google and I am sure their revenue will soar. The vast majority of people will not read the policy and will certainly not change any of their habits. I will probably not change any of my habits but it will always be (and has been for a while) in my mind that Google Big Brother is always watching, always. That said, lets look into this a little more.

It's always funny to me to see people ranting on Facebook about other people "getting into their business." Can anyone else see the irony in that? We all think we want privacy and to be able to live our lives without the scrutiny of others yet we willingly give out some of our most private information and moments on Facebook, Twitter and other outlets. It makes the identity thief's job so much easier. People do terribly private things over video chat that is so easy to record and redistribute. Once its out there, its out there forever. Yet we still get upset when we feel our privacy is invaded. My question is, "where is the line anymore?"

Another interesting development is the information jealousy that has arisen out of this purging of private information. I have seen this firsthand. I post something on Facebook before telling someone close to me. I fail to realize that some information is special enough that it still warrants a phone call and that there are hierarchies of importance for people to learn info. In other words, it is more important for my mom and dad to learn about something first than it is for my old high school chum to read about it on Facebook. It's not that I don't love them if I mess this order up. Its just that it is easy to post it and disseminate to all 1000 of my "friends." Besides, if they love me, they will be hanging on every moment to read the information, right?

I am starting to wonder where this voluntary forefeiture of privacy is leading. Some people already expect you to put everything on Facebook. Basically, if you didn't post it, it didn't happen. I don't blame them. Outlets like Facebook have replaced our ability to actually keep up with people and have conversations. I have witnessed people put terribly private things on Facebook that involve others before they even discuss it with that person. I recently saw a friend of mine post very revealing information about the state of their marriage. Whats really crazy is that some of that person's friends "liked" it (it was not good news by the way)! I know for sure that the other marriage partner did not, would not, could not have been very happy about this. Its one thing to air your dirty laundry to a friend or two but to post on Facebook, come on!  This to me is especially insidious because it is not just your information that you are willingly giving up, it is your spouse's also. You revealed information about someone else without their consent. You should not ever have the right to confess someone else's sins or misgivings.

At what point do we shift the other way and start to value our privacy again? Why do we feel the compulsion to share EVERYTHING with everyone? Do people value privacy at all? What do you think?

Social Media

It has been a while since I last posted. I promised myself when I started the blog that I would be diligent. Well, I guess I lied to myself. Bad Harmon!!! Anyway, today we had our annual Weichert Sales Rally. It was really cool. I rode to Huntsville with two very cool people, Jessica Harrison and Tony Torres. I truly am blessed to have such cool colleagues at my office. We had great conversation the whole car trip there and back.

So the focus of the sales rally seemed to be on use of technology and social media. It got me thinking--from a non-realtor perspective, how effective is social media as part of a marketing strategy? In other words, when you see me post a new listing on my Facebook, what is your knee jerk response? Where is the line between posting things about my business as part of my life and posting things about my business as just part of my business? I never want to be the guy that people can't stand because all I talk about is business. I want my business to just be a natural part of my life and I NEVER want to be "that guy" that is always trying to sell something. So, if all this rambling makes sense to you, I would love to read your thoughts. What is good and proper use of social media for business, rate me on my use of social media, and just generally weigh in on the topic.