Facebook privacy, Google trouble and clever AdWords

17/05/10 posted by Annie

Facebook privacy issues have again been roused by the weekend news of a Facebook predator luring and murdering an 18 year old girl. According to news.com.au, this is the second alleged murder of a young Australian woman linked to social networking. Police are now warning all teenagers to remove information that can be exploited by predators, like the names of schools, and to make sure only friends can see their photos. It's a far more startling cry than the "Kate's Party" kerfuffle of a few weeks ago, which also highlighted the "risks posed by failing to double-check privacy settings on Facebook”. Our lack of online privacy, or awareness thereof, continues to be a shocking reality. It's incredible how much information Facebook and the internet makes available about our personal selves: The Daily Telegraph reported that the predator was passionate about dirt bikes, rugby league and native reptiles, and that only six friends had accepted his invitation to his 21st birthday party. Ninemsn found out from a personal survey on Facebook completed by the predator that he was fearful of going to jail.

The endless complexities of online privacy however, should not discourage people from educating themselves about online safety so they can reap the many other benefits of the internet. A study by UK firm BCS indicates that information technology access boosts peoples' life satisfaction by 10 percent, and their sense of freedom by 15 percent, as well as improving their well-being overall. This is an interesting find, considering that greater wealth doesn't correlate to greater happiness; while others postulate the idea of internet addiction becoming a chronic childhood illness. BCS however, says information technology helps "promote and enable empowerment and autonomy", finding that women and lower earning individuals with less education find internet access particularly beneficial.

In other online news, Google has been called out for sexism against a website called CougarLife, by deeming that their advertisements are not family-safe; however Google doesn't make that same distinction for "sugar daddy" esque dating sites, according to CougarLife's CEO. A Google rep however, said the 'adult-only' classification of the CougarLife ad was targetted to the site's landing page, and not just the ad itself, maintaining "Anything that’s considered non-family safe will not run on the Google content network at this point.”

This story goes to show that the successful execution of Google's AdWords requires plenty of consideration. Take Alec Brownstein's example of how he landed his dream job through creative AdWords ads on a budget of $6, relying on the fact that top creative directors Google themselves regularly. His advice to others is, "Don’t be afraid to put yourself out there in an interesting way.” There are various factors which go into the making of clever online marketing strategies, as well as the less effective ones. If your online ad campaigns aren't as robust as you hoped, take some time to learn about the internet's many advertising clauses, be aware of site and country-specific censorship, and consider online privacy rules.