What Facebook Can Teach Us About Data Privacy

Facebook is currently the world’s most popular web site, with more than 690 billion page views each month, according to metrics from Google’s DoubleClick service. Facebook currently accounts for about 9.5 percent of all Internet traffic, slightly more than Google, according to HitWise.

Much has been said of Facebook’s infrastructure and its ability to keep millions of individuals connected to friends, family, and businesses on a 24/7 basis.   One might argue that Facebook is the tour de force of personal information and privacy.

For example:

• 500mm users trust Facebook with their personal details including religion, family details, marital status, and most current physical location.
• Users add more than 100m new photos each day, sharing images that often define their hobbies, friendships, relationships, and family structure.
• Users share more than 30 billion pieces of content on Facebook each month, further defining their views on a wide spectrum of religious, political, business and personal topics.
• Facebook operates at least nine data centers, all inside the United States.
• More than 70% of the Facebook audience resides outside United Sates.

When thinking of data privacy and cloud computing, Facebook has a unique place in our lives where we allow ourselves to be most candid and vulnerable.  A staggering 70% of Facebook users reside outside the United States, and choose for their data resides inside US- servers, without special qualifications or reservations.   Yet, every minute of every day, adding volumes of ‘secure’ information without any thought as to data privacy statements, data centers, or cloud computing technology.

While Facebook has initiated a few missteps pertaining to the ownership of personal information, there are few who could question its leadership, scale, and efficiency in cloud computing.  Clearly the events in the Middle East have shown us that cloud computing applications, like Facebook, can transform our ideas and create outcomes far beyond our expectations.

Maybe Facebook can teach us how we adopt and accept cloud computing as something transformative to society, and businesses, without marginalizing its potential by debating its servers, locations, and technologies?