By: Niland Mortimer

The recent flap over some M.I.T. students developing a methodology using Facebook data to predict whether a person is gay raises many issues about how we protect our privacy and the true relevance of this online discovery.

I remember when The Wall Street Journal published Jeffrey Zaslow's November 2002 article "If TiVo Thinks You're Gay...." many saw this as a gross invasion of privacy and the end of home DVR systems.  All it became was a joke.

The sorry aspect of these stories is that we live in a world where sexual orientation is something many want to hide.  It's telling that the M.I.T. students didn't, for example, develop a model that by investigating a person's friends they could predict the likelihood of that person being a vegetarian or a dog lover or a Mets fan.  "Gaydar" has an immediate draw for the media, hence the widespread publicity.

But personal privacy is a concern that everyone should take seriously by making a decision what to reveal or not, and to whom.  On Facebook, it's perfectly easy to limit the information you provide: you can select what to share and with whom to share it--friends, friends of friends, everyone.  Allfacebook.com has a great rundown of the privacy options on Facebook.

Everyone should be conscious of their choices and fully aware of the open sea of social media into which they're wading.  While It would appear that young people are less troubled with privacy concerns, I recall my son telling me when he was in 10th grade that he and his friends frequently warned each other about what content they put on their Facebook pages knowing that college admissisons departments looked at them.

That being said, the rules that apply to brands and businesses are very different.  Best practice for business is to be open and transparent in all online engagements.  This is can be a hard shift from the days where information flow was highly controlled; a one-way series of press releases and advertisements.  But it is a new mindset that is essential to adopt, and required in today's environment.  At Socialarc we manage our online conversations with objectivity and full disclosure, ensuring that our clients' goals and authentic voice are respected.

Be honest, be true, be aware.  But also be purposeful with the information you put out for all to see. Bill Bernbach once observed that great advertising helps a bad product fail faster.  With social media, this maxim holds true at light speed.  Walmart learned this the hard way with their MySpace-like offering aimed at teens that failed in less than three months due to over-control and lack of authenticity.

The rules of caution and transparency apply to social media marketing, too.  Consumers understand and accept marketing messages.  They reject marketing messages that pose as something else.  Connections should be clear and aims out in the open.  Then it's win-win-win for all involved.