Is online privacy to become a thing of the past?

26 September 2010

In a recent article on iMediaConnection, a spokesperson from Facebook described concerns about customer privacy online being much the same as the uproar around caller ID when it was first launched in the UK. She said: 'I remember when BT brought in caller ID, my parents were up in arms about their number being visible when they made calls. They saw this as an invasion of their privacy. [The internet community] is going through massive changes at the moment with how we access and share information and there are some people who panic at these changes. We'll look back at this in the same way we did with caller ID.'

Hmm. There's a bit of a difference between displaying an anonymous number and knowing who you are, where you live, who your friends are, where you went on holiday and all your interests.

Is the choice going to become 'give away your personal details or pay for browsing'? Or with an onslaught of online ads, will customers start making the tradeoff of giving away their details in return for fewer, more targeted ads?

Or... will there simply be an abundance of new apps developed that block advertising and provide ways around having to pay for content?

It's going to be interesting to see how this pans out - for both customers and marketers.