My Ideal Social Networking Site Would Be...

For more than three years, I've written this blog about identity theft, breaches, and corporate responsibility. The topics of privacy and control of sensitive personal information are closely related. Over the past two years, I've written about the limitations and frustrations of Facebook.com. See the module in the near right column for a list of blog posts about Facebook.

Frankly, I am ready to move on to the next, best thing because Facebook isn't it -- at least it isn't it for me. So, last week I warned my Facebook friends that I had decided to reduce both my personal time on the Facebook site and the volume of personal posts. I had already removed most of my liked pages and sensitive personal data from my Facebook profile. I had already removed most photos, too. In the future, most of my time on Facebook would be to maintain the Facebook fan page for this blog.

Given that, I began to wonder what elements would make up my ideal social networking site. Here is my list (in priority order):

1. All programs and features are opt-in based. Don't automatically include me. I, the user, will choose which programs (e.g., loyalty, targeted ads, affiliates, syndicated content, email address book upload, etc.) I want to participate with.
2. Make the user experience the priority. My ideal service would not cut corners here, and would not perpetually bolt on new features in a haphazard fashion. It definitely would not disclose sensitive data on error pages.
3. Stays true to its values. Don't get greedy and throw everything else out. Balance is key. Example: Facebook started as a closed system for students and today tries to be everything for everybody everywhere around the Internet. The Internet is an open system, so don't try to control it. Don't try to be everywhere on the Web and track me everywhere on the Web (like Facebook's social plugin modules do) unless I explicitly opt-in first
4. Honest, consistent user profile information. My ideal service is flexible and doesn't mandate specific data items I must insert in my online profile. Nor does it specify data items as "private" today only to change them to "public" later.
5. User friendly privacy settings. Locate them all in one place. Provide choice with a global mechanism and feature-specific mechanisms for customized privacy settings as I choose (e.g., by device, by type of contact, by type of content, etc.), not a few predetermined ways the site wants. It would allow me to toggle on and off any and all tracking features (e.g., GPS location, geo-tagging imprinted on photos, diagnostics, etc.) by each app, and not the current all-or-none approach by many websites. And it would provide a variety of customizable privacy and security alerts, like my online banking site provides.
6. Support my need to distinguish between types of contacts. My ideal site wouldn't provide a one-size-fits-all approach. It would let me group and distinguish between different types of contacts: coworkers, former coworkers, family, casual friends, alumni, and so forth. It would be smart and warn me about which of my contacts had no or very loose privacy settings.
7. Transparent, honest, and clear website policies. My ideal site would clearly explain in its website policies (e.g., terms, privacy,, etc.) everything that is relevant (e.g., terms, privacy, data security, vendors, affiliates, app developers, browser and LSO cookies, etc.) in plain English and not lawyer-speak. No zombie cookies. Don't rope-a-dope me with different policies for different Internet devices.
8. User choice of online measurement tools. Don't force upon me your measurement tool simply because you own the company. It should be the best and I, the user, should control which mechanism I want to use -- if any.
9. No means no. If I say today that I don't want to upload my email address book, don't continue to repeatedly ask me to do that later simply because it fits your business model. Don't serve up silly online ads asking me to reconnect with a contact that doesn't use your website much. I already know the person and their habits.
10. Is technically competent. Supports all major web browsers; not some. Fixes bugs quickly. Provides apps that work reliably and consistently with smart phones. Site search mechanism works reliably and consistently. Has a real quality control process in place to verify app developers don't abuse consumers' sensitive personal data. Uses state of the art data security methods and technologies. I need to know that you are doing everything possible to adequately protect my sensitive personal data I trust you with.
11. Commitment to privacy and data security. Includes a rigorous monitoring system of all apps and app developers to prevent "privacy leaky" apps, especially with mobile apps. Apps, and their developers, need to be rated by privacy and data security. (If the service can't do monitoring alone, then partner with an independent service.) That includes an opt-in approach to GPS-tracking by app, not the user unfriendly all-or-none approach many services employ today.

Alert readers will notice that I didn't say the service has to be free. If the service is providing truly value-added features and benefits, I am willing to pay a reasonable amount. Often I have found that you get what you pay for with free services.

What do you want in an ideal social networking site? Feel free to add your items below.

Comments

[R. Michelle Green]

I contend they already have much of #6 -- I just don't know of many people besides myself who use the ability to group friends. On the other hand, it limits the number of friends in a group and the number of groups. And most critically, as you pointed out: it doesn't let you know which if any of your friends have crazy-lax privacy standards. At least the default is that the most restrictive privacy setting in a list will apply to any content you share with the list -- but you still don't know what setting that is. I have not yet used the Limited Profile functionality (http://www.facebook.com/help/?search=limited+profile) so I don't know if that's helpful. I see Boston University decided it's better to address an issue than ignore it... http://www.bu.edu/tech/desktop/virus-protection-security/safe-computing/facebook/ whew, guess I miss talking about this stuff!

[software testing consulting]

OK, if you create this kind of a SN, I'm there. Also, try making it so it doesn't become "unavailable" all of a sudden... @ R. Michelle Green - *I'm* using the groups option in FB. So, you're not alone there... :)

[George]

Michelle & Software Testing:

Good luck with this. As I see it, once you go down that path you are on the slippery slope of having to monitor and respond to all of FB's updates that affect groups, lists, and privacy. That's not how I want to live my life... constantly battling FB's updates to keep my stuff private. There is more to life.

George
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