Is Privacy Facebook’s Fatal Flaw?

Facebook’s Fatal Flaw: There’s a high stakes gamble going on right now between Google and Facebook. The bet Google is making is that people really do value “privacy,” at least some conception of it. Facebook, on the other hand, essentially wants to redefine privacy. Mark Zuckerberg has gotten heat for his contention that privacy, at least as we used to know it, is essentially dead. In his unblinking world view, people gain far more benefits out of sharing information about themselves than the downsides. Social makes just about every product better, so it should be the default. Facebook’s product decisions reflect this mentality. Where it’s fallen short, at least in perception, is doing this in an upfront manner. Google is wagering people still want some zones of privacy. As VC Mark Suster told us, Facebook makes it hard to keep photos from that Vegas weekend from your colleagues. Google+ is designed to make this very easy. There’s no doubt Facebook will copy many of the most popular features on Google+, but I doubt it will significantly alter its aversion to traditional privacy. At PC World, Eric Mack predicts this will be its undoing. I doubt it, so long as Facebook can continue to show there are far more positives out of sharing than negatives.

Cruel Fate: The agency world is one tough place. It’s not easy to start up a new shop and succeed. Take the case of Mir, a digital production shop that gained a fair amount of buzz. Just last month Mir was the subject of a splashy Adweek profile video hailing it as a “new model agency.” Now it’s closed for business.