Privacy Violations
All sorts of businesses are being built by violating assumptions about the privacy of data.
Flickr violated the assumption that you wanted your photos private by default. Before Flickr came along, the default photo sharing model, espoused by Shutterfly, Snapfish etc., was that of private photo sharing.
LinkedIn violates the assumption that your resumé is private.
FourSquare violates the assumption that your location is private.
Twitter violates the assumption that some of your thoughts are private.
Instagr.am violates the assumption that your mobile photos are private.
Blippy is testing the assumption that some of your financial transactions are private.
All of these services take your original notion and need for privacy, and trade them off against your need for fame and recognition.
What’s next?
Any famous investors want to offer a real-time feed of their previously-private trades?
gojomo
October 15, 2010 at 8:26 pm
we are indeed building a service http://www.iddhis.com that takes privacy as the starting thing.
Shree Kant Bohra
October 15, 2010 at 8:27 pm
Great observation. Funny you didn’t mention Facebook.
Dev
October 15, 2010 at 8:39 pm
An activity feed of your sexual activity.
Because after all, sex is how anything in life starts with, so I’m sure we’ll end up there eventually.
Elias Bizannes
October 15, 2010 at 8:46 pm
I’m with Elias on this one, in part. I personally think that a live feed of everyone’s sexual activity would have a Kinsey-Report effect; Seeing everyone else’s supposed “diversions” from the norm should show people just how broad “normal” sexual behavior actually is.
Most people are way to prudish about their sexual behavior, though, and instead would just react really negatively. I suspect there is an evolutionary benefit to protecting that information, so it’s probably ingrained.
Frankly, though, I’d love to be proven wrong on this.
Ben Mathes
October 16, 2010 at 8:32 am
That would solve the contact tracing innefficiency problem for sexually transmitted disease epidemiologists….
Pieter Peach
October 16, 2010 at 10:25 pm
I would say http://hyperpublic.com/ is next. The ultimate recognition that there is value in owning a completely public identity. (bias: i built it)
jordancooper
October 15, 2010 at 10:01 pm
The users of these sites are trading their privacy for the value the site delivers (such as it may be). I disagree with you that the trade is for “fame and recognition,” though. Unless you are equating connecting with people/keeping in touch with recognition…
C. Scyphers
October 15, 2010 at 11:30 pm
Hashable violates the assumption that introductions and personal interactions are private.
Nice analysis.
john Frankel
October 16, 2010 at 2:40 am
So do we have a new generation that is growing up with no expectation or sense of privacy? The difference between what is considered public and private is largely a social construct. What should be private? Why? (Do you have something to hide?)
These are all interesting questions.
Mary
October 16, 2010 at 3:18 am
Stocktwits violates the assumption that good traders/investors wont share their ideas
howard lindzon
October 16, 2010 at 1:45 pm
This is a great article. It illustrates the erosion of online privacy a site at a time. A couple years ago I decided that perhaps there would be a market for a site that protects that online privacy using strong end-to-end encryption, yet provides the means to socialize with specific groups of individuals that your define and have control over. The site is live, but I won’t pimp it here. What I want to add to the conversation is that our signup rate is now 1-in-10 new visitors. That tells me there is a desire to have that capability even though it won’t replace other social networking sites for harmless banter. Our site is still in the stealth category but you can find us by googling “private secure encrypted”.
MrPrivacy
October 16, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Email could be an interesting medium to open up — who are you emailing and who is emailing you?
akashdgarg
October 16, 2010 at 2:00 pm
Health data, including medical records and genomics, should go on this list. And some startups are already starting to violate the privacy assumption there.
Jason Crawford
October 16, 2010 at 3:59 pm
One of our hypotheses at Leanpub is that most books should be written in public rather than in private, and that you get a much better book (and better sales!) if you do so.
Scott Patten
October 16, 2010 at 5:01 pm
Great article,never thought in this direction. Eating habits are consider very private, this would make public with integration of health awareness….
Syed k raza
October 17, 2010 at 4:46 am
Great observation.
Here’s another example: DuckDuckGo violates the assumption that a search engine should collect all kinds of private information about you — http://duckduckgo.com/privacy.html
Prakash S
October 17, 2010 at 8:44 am
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Gaspar
February 9, 2012 at 12:17 pm
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February 9, 2012 at 1:42 pm
Very thought provoking!! Trying out a new premise on http://www.twittsdaq.com where everyone can be traded (based on their T$) inclusive of live persons as well as fictitious companies. Since financials are not apparent or easily available, can we replace financials with influence (followers, popularity, reach)?
Twittsdaq
October 17, 2010 at 3:15 pm
Actually, speaking about the topic of violations, how about a list of websites that succeed by initially violating the terms of service?
(1) Google started by scrapping data off any website, irregardless of terms of service violation…
(2) Zynga started Texas Holdem Poker in Facebook when Facebook plainly says no gambling.
(3) Mint.com uses a service Yodlee that scraps financial websites to get user data.
I guess the idea is that if you think there is a market need, just ignore the conventional wisdom…
Dicky Johan
October 18, 2010 at 11:07 am
I think that you can strike a balance between privacy and social, and also put the users in control. Sections of the population will want to share everything, and others, much less is nothing. At coloci.com (founder), we allow users to selectively share their future locations and activities with their social network. Re-connected is the next wave after being e-connected.
coloci
October 29, 2010 at 7:43 pm
Good point. Protecting privacy is much more important to civil rights than most think.
Jeff Corbett
November 9, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Violations, or permission based violations, which of course is an oxymoron…
Jack
November 19, 2010 at 4:13 pm
[...] Naval Ravikant and Andrew Parker both blogged about how many popular web services have sprung from challenging assumptions about privacy. This is a specific instance of what I’m talking about. We make certain assumptions about privacy without always examining why we’ve made them. [...]
Unschooled » Blog Archive » Can interview puzzles help find startup ideas?
December 7, 2010 at 4:57 pm
October 5, 2011 This guy has ptesod so many times about me and my sick chicken Pearl that I can’t decide if he has a crush on me or is just morbidly obsessed with reading about animal deaths. Shit, I didn’t even read my own post as many times as he seems to have read it. Like, you wouldn’t watch Shoah (9 hour documentary on the Holocaust) repeatedly because that would be totally fucked up and distressing. I think this guy is an animal death pervo and I for one would like him to stop stalking me (and you!). Gives me the freakin’ creeps.
AYWA
February 9, 2012 at 3:40 pm
stock transactions used to be private, companies taking a shot now at the friend model
Dhiraj
March 21, 2012 at 7:17 pm
You missed badoo. Probably the number one site at feeding on ego boost, for the sucker’s money, literally.
Avid Reader
June 4, 2012 at 1:43 am