Privacy has been a big topic of conversation online, and I’ve been seeing more of it recently especially on Linkedin.
Take this random popular post, for instance, which is an analogy to big tech and how they use our data:
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Imagine inviting a business partner for dinner in your home. During the entire dinner, they constantly try to sell you their products or services. More so, whenever you aren’t looking, they’re taking pictures of every corner of your home, sneaking into your bedroom and combing through your drawers and personal belongings. If and when you confront them, they tell you that it’s your responsibility to *opt out* of such conduct. After all, they were just trying to get to know you as well as possible, to calibrate their offerings to you. In fact, they may even justify their conduct as appropriate because YOU did not proactively opt out of it. And, naturally, they would be firm on having the right to sell all the information they collected to whoever was willing to pay for it. Why not, right?
You’d likely kick them out of your house, and probably it wouldn’t stop there.
So why allow companies to do exactly that online?
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Why allow companies to do such things?
Simply because you allowed them to. As soon as you click that “register” button on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, or Google, you’ve agreed to their terms and conditions and privacy policy whether you read it or not.
In other words, they wouldn’t justify their conduct as appropriate just because you didn’t proactively opt out, it’s also that you’ve given your consent to let big tech do what they want with your data in the first place.
So in my eyes, there’s a big hole in his argument.
But there is good news.
It’s not like you don’t have control over your privacy. There are a couple of things that I’ve done to give myself a bit more control:
1. Going to my account settings and adjusting the privacy configurations (I’m not sure if many people are even aware that they’re able to do so).
2. Using browser extensions to block trackers, ads, and third party cookies.
3. Finding alternative services that take data privacy more seriously. For example, I’m in the process of switching from Gmail over to Protonmail. It’ll take a while to completely migrate since I have a lot of files stored in Google Drive, but it’ll get done eventually.
And then the post goes on:
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Businesses with the greatest ability to access and engage people (their employees, customers, and the public) will win in the digital age and have a bright future ahead of them. It’s those companies we entrust with our data, money and attention. It’s those brands I would gladly advocate for and spread the word about.
It’s so much easier to advertise, sell and run a business well when your target audience is willing to pay attention. Build trust with them, and they will build trust with you. Stop fighting and antagonising, starting putting people first.
It’s the best strategy for the short and the long term, and besides, it’s also the right thing to do.
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Indeed, it is the right thing to do.
And there are multiple solutions to getting your target audience to pay attention and build trust with you.
Social media, podcasting, webinars, public speaking, or all of the above.
But by far my favorite:
Emailing
Specifically by using my methods I teach in How to Become an Email Titan.