Considering Facebook Privacy

As Facebook has grown, privacy settings evolved—and, in many ways, eroded. The first changes made a lot of user information public by default, forcing users to be savvy enough to notice and change them. More recent changes have made additional user data public—and shared it with partners to target ads—without giving the option to change it.

 

While it’s still possible to adjust individual user settings to keep a great deal of personal data private, it’s not always easy to do so, and with regular, ongoing changes, Facebook keeps moving the goalposts. However, most of this doesn’t apply to organizations. Organizations that choose to have a public Fan Page usually are very interested in reaching people they don’t yet know. If they want to have a more private conversation, they can set up a private Group, for which the privacy settings are relatively straightforward. 

 

Constituent privacy is another thing altogether, though. Before you post anything about the people who interact with your organization, it’s important to consider a few things—like whether or not you have their permission. And whether your post might say more about them than they would want, either intentionally or not.

For example, are you mentioning things done by someone outside your organization and referencing them by name? Are you displaying photos or videos of people, or tagging photos with their names? It’s a good idea to get permission from them first. But even if you have permission, consider each picture or video. Is it something a constituent would want family or employers to see? 

 

Sometimes simply mentioning someone’s name can be an invasion of their privacy. HIPAA guidelines, for instance, which apply to health-related organizations who receive funding from Medicare or insurance companies, prohibit disclosure of any information related to diagnosis—even general information that someone is enrolled in a program. 

 

Even if HIPAA doesn’t apply to you, consider what you might be saying about constituents when you publish their names. If you provide financial grants to families in need, your grant recipients probably don’t want to publicize their economic hardships. Some organizations feel that even staff members personally friending those to whom they provide services discloses too much information.  This is a murky area. When creating a social media policy, make sure to think about your constituents and how your staff’s Facebook activities may affect them. It’s not always clear cut or easy to see.