Is "privacy" real?
In the early days of the United States, you had a choice. You could live in the same town all your life, and everything about you was known by your neighbors, or you could wander from town to town, making you anonymous to everyone you met.
"Privacy" was an irrelevant concept. You were entitled to draw your curtains against peeping toms, or latch the door of your outhouse, but otherwise if you participated in town life, your life was like the the movie "The Truman Show," where everyone could watch your daily life. Unless you absented yourself from the town, in which case you forfeited connection in favor of invisibility. Your choices were belonging and exposure -- or separation and evaporation. Everyone knew everything about you, or nothing.
During the Industrial Age, that changed. People began to think they could live with partial visibility. OK for you to see how I maintain my lawn, or to note my license plate, but not to know my bank balances or what movies I rent.
Now we see another change. Technology takes us back to an era where anything you do and say can be circulated widely and immediately. A vice-presidential candidate's email enters the public domain. A basketball player who quietly disses the national anthem is caught on a cell phone camera. College instructors are publicly evaluated in RateMyProfessor.com. The implication for business is apparent: If you mistreat one customer, even inadvertently, then it's likely that thousands and maybe millions will soon hear about it and you can never "ungoogle" yourself. Your best hedge against unwanted exposure? Treating customers fairly and with respect -- in other words, building a reputation for trustworthiness. It's the best way to balance the current value of customers with being able to count on their business and their kind words in the future.
Do you have a story about a company who has built -- or violated -- your trust? Share it with us here.
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