Follow usA deeper look into Google+ privacy concerns
A little more than a week ago, Google launched its new social service called Google+. We released our initial reaction to Google+ last week, however this week we wanted to address the increasing discussion on privacy issues surrounding Google+. There's many people taking positions on both sides of the debate- some saying that Google+ gives more control and is the better alternative to Facebook and others criticizing Google for deceiving users into a false sense of privacy. Here's where we stand:
Google flaunts its new service as a way for users to share different things with different people, “Giving you more ways to stay private or go public.” Usually, we would agree with such a philosophy, but instead of building a platform to reinforce this, the Google+ team says one thing and does another.
The Reshare Button – Taking away your choice
The infamous Reshare button is one of the first Google+ privacy controversies. Some originally thought this was some sort of privacy loophole, and others saw it as harmless- comparing it to copy/pasting or forwarding an email; however both of these statements completely miss the point. If Google+ was truly a social network that respected your choices concerning who to share with, why create a button that lets anyone betray that choice? After the outcry that followed, Google claimed they were working on a fix. After a day or so, their fix was pushed out to the masses, see below:
Their fix? A warning. The Reshare button obviously isn't a bug Google is keeping the feature in. This means that it was put there on purpose to share content with anyone, thus proving that Google cares little for their users' privacy and only use the illusion of choice to get users to sign up and share comfortably.
No control over your own image
Many, if not all of the main features in Google+ are public by default, instead of private. In fact in keeping with this trend Google announced last week that it will be deleting all private Google profiles by the end of the month. This trend towards public by default in Google+ is worrisome, especially since certain features allow others to control your image almost as much as you can.
Just like on Facebook, Google+ has a photo tagging feature. So just like Facebook, anyone can upload a photo of you, tag you in the photo and share it publicly. Here, your photo appears on their public profile with your name next to it, as well as in your photo section. The tag remains there until you decide to remove it, however with the Reshare button, by the time you get to the photo to untag yourself, the damage might already be done.
Just like Facebook, Google+ is taking an 'opt out' approach to your privacy. While Google wants people to believe they are a private and safe alternative to Facebook, they are merely commodifying privacy in order to gain traction with those concerned with this issue.
It's easy to see beyond circles
Google+ has been advertised as a way of safely and discretely sharing with certain groups of people. Google ensures users that their contacts won't be able to see which Circles they are in. However, after looking at Google+, it's obvious how visible your circles really are.
First, anyone with access to a limited post can easily see who else you have shared it with. After clicking on the 'limited' tag next to your post, they can see the names and profiles of those also seeing the same post. From here on out, the circles basically populate and label themselves. Here's an example:
1. Here, anyone seeing my post is able to tell I shared this post with 4 people who all share my last name. They'll immediately be able to tell that I have a family Circle that looks like this:
2: Now as soon as this person sees another post I have shared with my family AND others, the second circle will immediately be obvious as well:
This reveals severe flaws in the Google+ platform. It does not matter what Google tells users, If you can see who the post is shared with, you can see the 'label'- because the people in each circle are what define the label.
Google+ for businesses – Your own data used against you
Google has already announced that they have big plans on Google+ for businesses and brands. In a post last week they sent a message to businesses detailing some of their plans, mentioning adwords, analytics and the ability to communicate with users through circles.
For a while now Google has been using user data from Gmail and search for advertising purposes, that is no secret. In fact, Google made approximately 28.2 BILLION dollars on advertising revenue in 2010 alone.
With businesses soon coming to Google+, it will be interesting to see what direction Google will go with the information users share with their circles, and how this will be integrated with businesses on their platform. However if the past is any indication, it looks like Google+ will be nothing more than one more source of data for advertisers and businesses to more accurately target consumers, using their own information.
Google+: Using Privacy as a Gimmick
As we've seen above, the way Google is marketing Google+ doesn't seem to be reflected in the actual service. Google claims that their platform allows for more control over who sees what but by default Google+ shows the following:
- Choices are taken out of your hands
- You have little control of your own image
- It's easy to see through circles
- Your own data is used against you
That being said, one has to ask themselves whether Google is using privacy and control as a gimmicky selling point or if they truly believe in this system. Our answer? If Google truly cared about your privacy, they would build a system that would reflect and support these kinds of functionalities. Instead they built Google+, where most everything is public by default and contradicts what the message they tell their users.
Taking the above into account as well as Google's plans for businesses and advertising, the only takeaway is that Google+ is a platform where privacy and control take a back seat to information gathering and advertising.
Relevant links:
GigaOM - It's all about the data
Mashable - Google Accelerates Google+ for Business Test Program
Financial Times - The first Google+ privacy flaw
How Complex Is Your Privacy?
It's a common problem in any social network; an acquaintance or coworker invites you to connect, yet you're not completely comfortable sharing all of your information with them. However, a refusal of the invitation can create an awkward social situation offline. In many social networks, such as Facebook, the invitee will be able to see your activity, and know that their invitation has gone unaccepted, which can lead to feelings of rejection, frustration and even anger. What good is a social network if it only alienates others?
A solution to this problem would be to accept the invite and then hide information you don't wish to share with that individual, yet it seems like Facebook makes this intentionally difficult. In order to hide even one piece of information from any one individual, you have to go through over 10 steps- and then repeat most of those steps over for every subsequent piece of information. To change every setting, you would need to repeat these steps up to 15 times- and even then, there's no guarantee it will be kept private!
Here at Hibe, we make it our mission to create easier solutions to these problems. Why should it be so hard to keep your information private? On Hibe, you can create facets to reflect the same social contexts you interact through in real life. When you create an account, you can simply choose to create a facet with information you are comfortable sharing with those you add to it. That way, when you get invites from those you don't want to reject, but prefer not to share everything with – it's as simple as placing them in that facet!
Let's take a look at how simple it can be to make a change on Hibe, versus how complex it can be when trying to maintain privacy on Facebook. Remember, while on Hibe it's as simple as changing facets- on Facebook, you need to proceed through several steps for each individual piece of information, up to 15 times!
On Facebook there is a maze of privacy settings, but Hibe eliminates the need for these settings by interacting with others contextually. Interested in simplifying your privacy Online? Pre-register on our homepage and while you're there, check out our video!
Hibe’s Social Manifesto
Today, we share with you our Social Manifesto, an internal document that presents our motivations and the principles guiding our work. It is the rallying cry for our team.
We enter an era of awareness where social media users ask for a more natural experience in their online interactions. We are simply answering the call.
The Manifesto will help you understand how Hibe follows the way we interact in the real world. For example, as in life, Hibe has NO PRIVACY SETTINGS!
We also invite you to register on Hibe's home page for a pre-launch access. Registrants will receive their invites on a first come first serve basis, in Fall.
We hope the Manifesto will inspire you as it inspires us. Enjoy!
Hibe and the EFF Bill of Rights for Social Network Users
Following the privacy controversy that rocked the social media world in May, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published a bill for privacy rights for social network users.
In this post, we will go through the bill and discuss how Hibe complies with it.
#1: The Right to Informed Decision-Making
“Users should have the right to a clear user interface that allows them to make informed choices about who sees their data and how it is used.”
Hibe: Privacy made simple
As seen in a previous post, Hibe enables you to share information through facets. In a single view, you can review who can see your facets and which booklets you expose in them.
If you set access restrictions (conditions) to one of your facets, it will appear on the same interface.
Because Hibe supports exceptions of various natures, such as “Tom can always access my project booklet”, or “Dad can never see content in my Friend facet”, we have designed a privacy page to summarize all of them in a single interface.
“Users should be able to see readily who is entitled to access any particular piece of information about them, including other people, government officials, websites, applications, advertisers and advertising networks and services.”
Hibe is offering a simple model. You house your information in a place where you have total control on who can access it. There are no advertisers or so-called “partners” to leech your information.
We just do not grant access to your information to anyone unless you specify it or we are required to do so by law.
“Whenever possible, a social network service should give users notice when the government or a private party uses legal or administrative processes to seek information about them, so that users have a meaningful opportunity to respond.”
We believe that letting you know who accesses your information is part of your right for privacy. If we become under legal obligation to share some of your information, we will notify you unless we are refrained from doing so.
#2: The Right to Control
YOU do the sharing, not us.
“Social network services must ensure that users retain control over the use and disclosure of their data.”
This is our “raison d’être”. We design Hibe to give you full control over who accesses what and under which conditions.
You do the sharing, not us.
“Social network services must ask their users' permission before making any change that could share new data about users, share users' data with new categories of people, or use that data in a new way. Changes like this should be "opt-in" by default, not "opt-out," meaning that users' data is not shared unless a user makes an informed decision to share it.”
We also believe that too often default values (and opt outs) are used to manipulate people’s behavior. On Hibe, you define the sharing rules of your facets. No services or features can modify these rules. Hibe is about giving you the control; not taking it away.
“If a social network service is adding some functionality that its users really want, then it should not have to resort to unclear or misleading interfaces to get people to use it.”
Our business model is not based on your data. It is based on our ability to provide you with total control over the sharing of your information. Misleading or unclear interfaces brings us no value.
#3: The Right to Leave
“One of the most basic ways that users can protect their privacy is by leaving a social network service that does not sufficiently protect it. Therefore, a user should have the right to delete data or her entire account from a social network service. And we mean really delete. It is not enough for a service to disable access to data while continuing to store or use it. It should be permanently eliminated from the service's servers.”
Your trust means more to us than your data. Any information shared through your facets, be it a post or an image will be permanently deleted from our servers on your request.
If you contribute content to a public environment, such as a group, you can no longer delete it as others may interact with it. Similarly, when you contribute art to a public organization, you can not ask for it back. However, if you cancel your account, Hibe will permanently anonymize the contributed content.
Further information on deletion including delays and policy infringement will be found in our terms of use and privacy policy at launch time.
“Furthermore, if users decide to leave a social network service, they should be able to easily, efficiently and freely take their uploaded information away from that service and move it to a different one in a usable format.”
We are currently working on a technology that will enable our users to maintain their information even when offline. This inherently means that you can keep your content even after you deactivate or cancel your Hibe account.
All in all
We started Hibe because we respect our social lives and want to improve it online. When we see initiatives promoting awareness on privacy issues and how to make better use of our social tools, it keeps us moving.
Hibe is for you.
original image by futureofprivacy.org
Society through Facets
In order to provide a real life experience Hibe uses facets and booklets. The post below and the following one provide a sneak peek on the mechanisms behind them. Next release of the platform, due this summer, will include an implementation of the discussed functionality.
Facets are our online Social Contexts
Figure 1 - Sandra and her facets
Facets are the digital counterparts of our social contexts.
They stand as subsets of our social life. For example, Sandra in Figure 1 displays three facets: at the beach, at the music practice and at work.
Each facet comprises the following parts.
- A profile, our physical representation within a context
- An identity, the elements that define us in that context
- A privacy engine, the norms of distribution we set for that context
- A network, the people in a context and the rules between them
Most importantly, facets give us the freedom to establish and maintain different relationships with different people online.
Facet Profile
The facet profile is the representation of our appearance in a specific context. We manage it using three required components.
- Name: How do others know us in that facet?
- Avatar: How do we want others to see us?
- Facet: How do we name that facet?
We can add more profile information when editing it. In Jack's figure, he shows us three of his profiles.
It is normal to see others through a single profile: the one they want us to see. If we have access to several profiles of a user, we will have the ability to browse through them.
Facet Identity
In life, we chose to present and express ourselves differently in each of our social contexts. We display different values, and discuss different topics depending on the situation we are in and the people we talk to. The facet identity is meant to duplicate this form of adaptation in our online interactions. It comprises the following elements.
- Our booklets, digital representations of our relations with the various elements that define us in a facet. We use booklets to discuss and share information.
- Our notes, small messages we exchange with each other and comment on.
- Our association to groups and contacts, the facet's social environment.
Based on the Jack Smith figure, Jack might be a different person in each of his facets.
- In his Fun Time, Jacky is a hockey fan and enjoy old sci-fi movies. He also enjoys playing tennis and golf, although his score tracking shows him more as a talker than a ball hitter.
- Dr. Smith is a professional specialized in biochemistry. He has written several papers on the subject and he actively participates in industry events and research groups. He uses this facet to share his research and his opinions in that field.
- Jack Lee Smith is happily married to Brenda for 13 years. They have one daughter, Sandra, and one son, Tim. As a family, they enjoy vacationing every year in Europe. Jack uses primarily this facet to share his family life.
Facet Privacy Engine
Offline, we control the boundaries of our social contexts. Since our birth, we are trained to manage what we talk about, to whom and under which conditions. Why? Sociologists found several reasons including:
- Fear of reprimands / embarrassment
We all have stories about ourselves that are not flattering. Don’t deny it. There are moments when we prefer these stories to remain untold.
- Negotiation
Keeping aces in the sleeves is useful. If companies learn too much about us, we are losing bargaining power. Let’s keep them fighting to get our dollars. We’ll have better deals.
- Expectation (Norms of appropriateness)
With doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, expectations guide our interactions. Sometimes the situation itself creates expectations; such is the case when a death, a birth, a wedding or a birthday occurs.
- Image management
Various circumstances such as courting and job interviews motivate us to pay attention to how others perceive us within a context. It is in our best interest to manage adequately our image to achieve certain goals.
- Relevance
Have you ever been to a hockey party where one started to talk about how the outer nuclear membrane of a cell is continuous with the membrane of the rough endoplasmic reticulum. Half the people began to snore within fifteen minutes.
A conversation, as valid it can be, may be completely irrelevant in one situation, while being of a great interest in another one.
We use the privacy engine to manage who can see what and under which circumstances. It enables us to:
- avoid reprimands and embarrassments,
- protect our bargaining power,
- respond to expectations,
- manage our image,
- remain relevant in an online social context
Using the privacy engine to grant access to a facet does not automatically mean others will receive our feed of activities in their accounts. It means others can find us, can view our facet identity, and can comment on our posts. For a full feed exchange, our contacts must consent to it by also placing us in one of their facets.
Each facet can be public, private, or conditional (i.e. it can be accessed according to predefined conditions.)
Public Facet: A public facet reflects how we want to show ourselves on the world’s largest plaza. Everybody with an Internet connection can access it including search engines. Note: Interacting with a public facet does not automatically make ourselves, our content or our contacts public.
Private Facet: A private facet represents a closed social context such as our friends and our family.
We select who can interact with us in that facet. We give such privilege by associating contacts to the facet. There are three ways to do so:
Managing our facets
A – By using Hibe's Invite feature. Using email addresses, our contacts are notified that we enabled them to interact with us through a Hibe facet.
B – By responding to notification. As part of an invitation, we have the option to respond by adding the user to one of our facets.
C – By directly adding the contact to a facet. This can only happen if we have access to one of that contact’s facets.
As we see in the above screenshot, it is possible to include a contact in several facets in which case the default facet indicates which profile that contact sees when looking at us. In the example above, Felix knows the user as “John”, not “Mr John”. In this case, Felix interacts with John through the combined identities of his Friends and the Co-workers facets.
Private facets provide us with firm control of our information. Through them, we can easily share sensible information with specific people such as our doctor or our notary.
Conditional Facet: In life, we adapt our social behavior based on our surroundings. It enables us to maintain our privacy while building expectations for those who want to interact with us. Conditional faceting helps us achieve the same online.
We can specify a set of conditions that enables Hibe’s engine to decide contextually who may or may not access our facet. We can build these rules using:
- Booklet and Contact relations
- Location
- Facets accessibility
- Group membership
Here are a few examples to illustrate the power of conditional facets.
- Only those who work at my company may review my work projects;
- Greenpeace members can view my environmentalist opinions, but only if he is not my boss or one of his contacts;
- My “Saturday evening” facet can be accessed only if you are not part of my “Family”;
- Only Porsche owners or the Porsche company can read my lifelong obsession with sport cars;
- Only the people from my community can see my lobby efforts for cleaner parks;
- As a company, only the owners of one of our products will access our support facet.
Facet Network
A real social context contains a network of contacts that in turn can be present in other contexts. Such is life. However, when I talk to my father, I expect our conversation to remain in our family even if he knows a lot more people.
Hibe built a networking engine that replicates those expectations by default. To illustrate contexts, here is an example of an interaction diagram in a typical relationship where all facets are private.
When Alex posts a photo in a booklet shared through his Party facet, a post appears on Bob’s feed where it is seen only by Bob, Alex and Matt because they are part of Alex’s Party network.
A facet network diverges greatly from the unnatural “friends’ friends” network where our information is exposed to complete strangers. Here we constantly control who sees our information.
Facets as a revenue model
Hibe has a revenue model based on the services it provides to members. This dedication enables it to focus on developing value-added features for users, not for third party advertisers.
By steering away from advertising, Hibe avoids an intrusive invisible audience in the platform, greatly enhancing the privacy of our users' information.
Hibe adopts the freemium model where members can use the platform with a limited number of facets without any charges. Additional facets and advanced features will be available for subscribers at a nominal fee. Do not hesitate to contact us, if you have any suggestions.
