We now have a general understanding of the problems facing the social-web and what components need to get built; but what do we need to consider? I mentioned privacy as being an important constraint. Privacy touches on three things, the way we define relationships with others, what we choose to share with whom, our associations and behaviors towards brands and services.
Increasingly users will demand that their private information is in their control. Users will gravitate towards services that allow them to control and manage that data for themselves as well as for their networks. It's not hard to imagine that social-network clusters would be willing to have someone broker their data for them. Imagine a scenario where a marketer is able to do a keyword search and see results that relate to social-network clusters. The marketer would then pay for access to those clusters which in turn a portion of which would go directly to the end users.
For this to truly happen users have to be empowered to filter only what they want and when they want it. As a user I should be able to have direct control of the personal-data any service has about me. As a user I should be able to click one button from a remote application and remove this personal-data from any service.
At Stanford researchers are using the theory of contextual-integrity to re-think the issues regarding privacy. Contextual-integrity acknowledges that people do not require complete privacy. The idea is that people will share information as long as certain social norms are met within given contexts. These researchers have codified privacy rules based on American privacy laws, including health care, financial institutions, and children's activities online. Privacy controls are the critical element is the social-web is going to deliver it's real potential.
