Motherboard

The past month has been all about Facebook, their most recent update fueling a storm of controversy. And when the NYTimes is touting an ‘open’ social network by some kids at NYU as the next big thing, it’s clear that the anti-Facebook fervor has reached a proverbial tipping point. Last week’s release of a telling chat transcription (most likely in jest) just sent that fervor over the edge.

But emotions aside, how much does this privacy bandwagon really matter?

More Complex Than “Privacy”
It seems bizarre that in a world where Twitter, Foursquare, and Blippy are the rising stars of the internet, people are getting bent out of shape over Facebook but it’s important to understand that this isn’t just a fundamental debate over openness and privacy, but also misdirection, user expectations, and perhaps a resentment towards Zuckerberg’s arrogance.

Much of this comes down to a game of public relations, one that Facebook has never really had to play given the astronomical rise in the popularity of the social network. The most apt analogy is Apple, a company that’s had its fair share of community criticism, born out of their public battle with Adobe over Flash, blatant omission of fundamental features, an App Store that has become a bastion of censorship and hypocrisy, and of course the latest fiasco over a lost prototype.

With a stock price of about $250 and a market cap of over $230 billion, Steve Jobs probably doesn’t care. Sales for the iPhone remain strong and continue to drive their App Store business. The iPad launch, despite initial criticism, is blossoming into one of the company’s best ever product launches reaching a million sales twice as fast as the iPhone. As long as they keep releasing impressive products, consumers won’t care either. Well, they might claim to, but in the end their only meaningful vote is with their wallet.

Facebook Still Valuable
Facebook, despite its privacy shenanigans, is still inarguably a rock solid product. Whether or not contenders like Diaspora will be able to provide a real viable alternative is yet to be seen and in the case of such social platforms, number of users is everything. Four hundred million members is a symbol of Facebook’s success but it’s also what makes the product so useful.

Even I initially argued that without a sense of trust, Facebook’s future looked uncertain. Others will point to a recent study that shows, contrary to popular belief, most young adults do care about privacy, in similar fashion to previous generations. The issue? They often have a false sense of security:

One big difference, though, is that young people seem to think that rules protecting their privacy are more stringent than they actually are, according to the study by researchers at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Pennsylvania, which compared people ages 18 to 24 with those in older age groups. The young people were more likely to think incorrectly that sites had to delete private information about users on request or that sites had to obtain people’s permission before following their Internet use across multiple sites, for example.

This is primarily what Mark Zuckerberg is banking on. With its privacy policy already longer than the US Constitution, could any layman really understand the privacy implications of something like Facebook? And as Apple has shown, users are willing to cede some control and compromise a bit of their philosophical principals if the overall package is enticing enough. Likewise for Facebook, privacy becomes an opportunity cost in that, if the perceived social benefits are great enough, users will similarly make the necessary sacrifices.

Overseas Boom
Moreover, while Facebook’s growth remains strong in the US, its primary engine of growth is now international in countries like Taiwan which has seen over 2800% year over year growth in membership. Such eastern countries have a cultural philosophy that focuses on the group rather than the individual and consequently, the concept of privacy is quite foreign. Indonesia for instance now ranks third just behind the US and the UK, having grown its total user base 800% over the last 12 months. They don’t even have their own word for privacy.

All this means is that Mark Zuckerberg could be proven right, that his overly aggressive tactics could ultimately be justified. To him, privacy activists are the neo-luddites of the Information Age, and he has no problem sweeping them aside in his quest to make Facebook the number one destination on the web and an increasingly profitable one at that. It’s simply good business.

So whether you agree with Zuck or not, Facebook is here to stay. And if you’re one of those people not jumping ship on May 31st, just don’t forget check those privacy settings.