Privacy and Trust in the Information Economy

Left to Right (picture to come)

Mozelle Thompson (host)

John Thomaszewski, VP Policy/Compliance, TRUSTe

Shawn Broderick, CEO, TrustPlus

J.R. Reagan, VP and Managing Director, Bearing Point

I walked in as Facebook came up, and the topic was liability for third party use of information you post, including a lawsuit where someone sued for using someone's likeness off of Facebook w/o permission. (Full Disclosure: Thompson is a consultant for Facebook). I'd note that Facebook's TOS lets them use your picture to promote them.

Of course, the discussion led to generational differences in sharing of information, my favorite topic, aka "audit trails." I asked the Panel the question that I've been asking for weeks now, in that whether or not these online "life audit trails" will be a problem and how to deal with them.

Also, who owns the data?

Both Thompson and Thomaszewski (who w/ TRUSTe certifies Facebook's privacy practices) noted that the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies need to gybe, and that a generational shift is needed to get people totally comfortable with as it was put, "more truth, all the time."

Good answers. 

I like Facebook, I like the people. I'm getting more convinced on their earnestness on privacy. I still want to know about Data Portability, but the more I hear about their privacy concepts, the more I trust them. 

There are some good things happening. I may be a skeptic, but they're bringing me around.