This week in Consumer Behavior we discussed customer privacy, and whether or not we feel privacy policies go too far or not far enough (both from a consumer’s and manager’s perspective).  Rather than paraphrase, I’ll just copy and paste a snippet of my response:

I’ve always found the battleground topic of customer privacy to be very interesting, because in my experience…people are generally inconsistent with their beliefs. Consumers demand that their personal information submitted online to retailers not be shared with third-party vendors (to avoid the dreaded flood of email spam), yet these same individuals are completely willing to share all but the most intimate of details online via blogs, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or a host of other social networking sites.

I’ve sat next to people in doctor’s offices who hand out their credit card numbers over their cell phone, completely oblivious to the fact that people might be listening in. People who live in my neighborhood proudly display signs in their front yard indicating Caitlyn and Austin are in cheerleading or football at the local high school, probably not even considering how easy it would be to find out the last name of the home’s owner and do who-knows-what.

With that, I started thinking about Facebook pages and how I know what my “friends” are interested in - to a startling degree in some cases.  Privacy doesn’t really come into play when you’re talking about television shows you like, or brands of soda you enjoy.  Unless you’re weird.

But, while we’re so openly sharing…wouldn’t it be great if you knew what your Best Facebook Friends Forever were truly fans of? I mean, sure I’m a fan of red wine, and Freebirds, and How I Met Your Mother…but wouldn’t you rather read “Snarkwife is a fan of ending sentences with prepositions” in your live feed?

How about…

• Jane Doe is a fan of unemployment.
• John Doe is a fan of passive-aggressive behavior.
• Judy Doe is a fan of parking so crookedly in parking spots that others can’t park in the adjacent spots.
• Jim Doe is a fan of calling in sick to work on Fridays and/or Mondays.
• Jane Doe is a fan of pouring the last cup of coffee at work, and not making a new pot.

And so on, and so forth. I mean really, the options are limitless.