How Much Do You Think About Customer Privacy?

Once a week, I spend some time going through Facebook and ‘connecting’. Very often, I see some of my ‘Friends’ getting tagged in certain photos.

Many of them are photos where I know

Image via Wikipedia

these guys are pals and probably don’t mind but I’m also seeing pictures taken at conferences, seminars, meetups etc. I usually give people the benefit of the doubt and trust they have asked those in the picture for their permission.

But at the same time these things are easy to miss. On a site like Facebook and many social networks, because of the seemingly ‘close’ relationship you feel you have with your customers and mentors, it is often easy to forget that we are in business. And… call me paranoid, when it comes to business and customers, you can never be too careful because it is super easy to land ourselves in a law suit that could easily put us out of business

To make things worse, many of us do not have the right legal structure which means our personal assets could be at risk too.

Besides, customer privacy is our concern. While this is not exactly customer’s private data but the customer may not necessarily be expecting to find the picture of them online.

I’m in no position to give legal advise and this should not be construed as such but sometimes when dealing with new technology, new methods. It may be a good thing to ask your attorney about the consequences of posting your customer photos online.