Talk to a Gen Y about privacy today, in almost any developed country, and you're likely to get the old raised eyebrow dismissal. Privacy? WTF? (Gen Y's are people who are a chronological age of between 10 and 30, or thereabouts - born after 1980.) Now I have thought long and hard about this reaction, which is near-universal among Gen Y folks. My conclusion is that the deep concern all of us in my own generation - the Baby Boom generation - have about protecting our personal privacy is likely to become less and less consequential as the population ages. In fact, I predict that the whole idea of protecting privacy, as a must-do activity, may actually fade out of public concern entirely once the older generation leaves the scene.
I could be wrong on this. It's quite possible that Gen Y and younger consumers will become much more vitally interested in privacy protection once they become older. But I doubt it. I think there are a number of reasons for this.
- For one thing, they have grown up on social media and e-interactions. A Gen Y person will never lose track of their childhood friends, and (apparently) never tire of posting pictures on Facebook for all their friends.
- Also, they know not to "friend" an untrustworthy person, so why would they ever do business with an untrustworthy business?
- Then there is the fact that a kind of "ethos" has arisen for online behaviors by companies. No legitimate companies do any spamming any more, and very few actually violate any customers' privacy except by accident. Note that this is not just the result of legal restrictions; in fact, in almost all cases, companies' privacy policies are stricter than the legal requirements for them. But today companies protect the privacy of customers simply because it's good business - because that's how you get more customers to use your site. (There are many exceptions, of course. Not all companies have figured this privacy protection thing out yet, but most of the big brands have.)
- Finally, and most important, I think social media and e-interaction have combined to de-sensitize us all, but especially the younger folks who've grown up on it, to the desirability of protecting our privacy. You can live in a closet, or your can participate with everyone else on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. If you live in a closet, you'll enjoy all the privacy you want, but most people just don't want to live that way.
When Martha and I wrote The One to One Future back in 1993, we vastly over-estimated the privacy protection problem. We assumed, based on what we considered the traditional "slash and burn" tactics of mass marketers, that companies able to obtain personal information on customers would quickly stoop to all sorts of abuses, because there was no actual economic cost to using this data. We suggested that businesses would soon spring up offering to serve as "privacy buffers" for customers. You give me all your personal information, your shopping desires, etc., and I will make this information available to marketers, but without any personal identifying information. Boy, were we off on that one! Nothing of the sort has been seen, except in some very limited situations.What do you think? Is privacy protection a concern that will disappear with older consumers?
- Finally, and most important, I think social media and e-interaction have combined to de-sensitize us all, but especially the younger folks who've grown up on it, to the desirability of protecting our privacy. You can live in a closet, or your can participate with everyone else on Facebook, Twitter, and Linked In. If you live in a closet, you'll enjoy all the privacy you want, but most people just don't want to live that way.
- Then there is the fact that a kind of "ethos" has arisen for online behaviors by companies. No legitimate companies do any spamming any more, and very few actually violate any customers' privacy except by accident. Note that this is not just the result of legal restrictions; in fact, in almost all cases, companies' privacy policies are stricter than the legal requirements for them. But today companies protect the privacy of customers simply because it's good business - because that's how you get more customers to use your site. (There are many exceptions, of course. Not all companies have figured this privacy protection thing out yet, but most of the big brands have.)
- Also, they know not to "friend" an untrustworthy person, so why would they ever do business with an untrustworthy business?