TheMarketingBackpack

So this scared me a bit. I can just imagine this scenario…

Being in a bar, enjoying a Guinness alone, and then some stranger comes up behind me and suddenly knows everything about me, that maybe he shouldn’t know. He invites himself to have a drink with me, because after all, he knows I’m single from my mobile profile. Then he precedes to talk about my most recent trip to Florida and that he thought I looked nice in my bathing suit.

Ahh! Just creeps me out. But then I get to thinking more about it.

In the early 90s when some people used email, they had anonymous user names and could choose who to “interact with” (i.e. when to read a message, when to reply, and who to give their email address to). It was a nice way to communicate quickly and cheaply, but maintaining a certain level of privacy and secrecy about your real identity.

Then came instant messaging. This was a bit more “revealing” of who you were. You created a profile that some people could see, with some information about you – where you’re from, what you like, etc. You could choose who was in your friends list, but if someone sent you a message there was little you could do about not immediately reading it. Chat boards were similar, and if you were in that room, there was not much you could do to stop people from checking you out and you more or less had to read what was being said. But! You had a made up name, and who’s to say your profile was 100% true and accurate.

MySpace. This was a place to share pictures, favorite things, friends, and pretty much anything you wanted to reveal. However, here still there was some anonymity – you didn’t need to use a real name and it was relatively easy to make stuff up.

Facebook came shortly after MySpace. Here, is more or less, the first time that a large population of internet users revealed their real identity, with their name, pictures (tagged sometimes by others), networks, career info, opinions, groups etc. If you didn’t use your real name, your friends couldn’t find you, so you were more or less forced to use your real identity. Not to mention people could post info about you or to you on your wall for all to see, at least temporarily if the user wants to remove it.

So there has been a real progression on-line in terms of revealing your privacy and relinquishing your control over your on-line identity. Is this mobile stuff the next step? Will people be less “creeped-out” by the fact that anyone who is physically near them can find out a myriad of info out about them without even knowing their name? I’m not quite sure yet. Maybe if there’s a way to turn on a privacy setting when you’re in certain places where perhaps you don’t want to be bothered (i.e. a subway station late at night, on an interview, or relaxing by yourself and reading a book at a cafe). I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

Would you use something like this? Does it freak you out or get you fired up?