SF Gate reports on proposed legislation that could affect not only Facebook (which is NBC Bay Area’s main concern in this story), but all social networking sites. The legislative summary of the bill is as follows:

Existing law requires an operator of a commercial Internet Web site or online service that collects personally identifiable information through the Internet about individual consumers residing in California who use or visit its site or online service to conspicuously post its privacy policy on its Internet Web site. Existing law also prescribes various prohibitions with regard to disclosures of personal information related to, among other things, drivers licenses, social security numbers, and direct marketing. This bill would prohibit a social networking Internet Web site, as defined, from displaying in a designated text field, to the public or other registered users, the home address or telephone number of a registered user of that Internet Web site without consent, as defined. The bill would require a social networking Internet Web site to establish a process for new users to set their privacy settings as part of the registration process that explains privacy options in plain language, and to make privacy settings available in an easy-to-use format. The bill would require a social networking Internet Web site to remove the personal identifying information, as defined, of any registered user, and would require removal of that information regarding a user under 18 years of age upon request by the users parent, within 48 hours upon his or her request . This bill would impose a civil penalty, not to exceed $10,000, for each willful and knowing violation of these provisions.

If you really want to get into the nuts and bolts of internet-related legislation, the analysis of the bill posted here makes for some pretty interesting reading. If one is to believe that this part of the analysis is correct …

Regarding the ability of users to change those privacy settings, a recently released study by Columbia University entitled The Failure of Online Social Network Privacy Settings found that 93.8 percent of participants revealed information that they intended to keep private, and that 84.6 percent of participants were hiding information that they actually wanted to share.

… then clearly sites can do a far, far better job with privacy settings than they’re doing now. I’m just not sure that passing legislation like this will really accomplish what everyone wants — which is to give the public as much control over their own information as is reasonable and possible.

Forget rapid cognition — the blink of an eye is what absorbs four years before you have much of a chance to think about it. Which is why I’m thinking about getting wired up like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange.

… my daughter was a fairly terrified freshman. Today she’s a supremely confident graduate of Ursinus. I can’t imagine any father anywhere being any prouder.

“I read Shakespeare and the Bible, and I can shoot dice. That’s what I call a liberal education.”
—Tallulah Bankhead

HubSpot has a blog post … and an audio recording … and an ebook … detailing 60 ways in which “the ‘Personalization Revolution’ has been enabling a select number of marketers to create not just windfall profits, but also far deeper relationships with customers, constituents and the marketplace.”

Having been in this digital marketing game since the first Clinton administration, I’ve long felt that personalization is one of those things that seems great in theory but looks terrible in practice. For all the hopeful and optimistic language about “making things personal in a meaningful way,” the end result is typically something quite different.

So what happens is I wind up getting emails addressed to “Peter” (a typo of my last name) instead of to “Craig.” Or I get messaging imploring me to buy a Mother’s Day present for my mom who passed away two years ago. Or I get pinged to buy something wholly inappropriate for me because I used my computer and Amazon account to buy something for my daughter for her birthday.

You get the idea. The reality is that the “algorithmically-driven content” HubSpot touts too often winds up delivering irrelevant crap.

Because true and meaningful personalization — like when a close friend of family member recommends a terrific new movie you’ve never heard of because they know who you are, not what you’ve bought lately — is hard to come by.

The rest is just smoke and mirrors.

Takeaway for marketers: Pimpin’ (your product or service) ain’t easy.