My Facebook Got Binged

[Discovery]

So I go to Bing.com this morning and my Facebook profile pops up in the top right corner... hmmm?

"Hi Jerry, Bing just got better with your Facebook friends. Disable • Learn More."

Dissect that statement for just a second. Heck I'm a marketer often confined to 90 characters or less, so words do matter.
Bing got better with MY Friends?

#1 I don't use tool bars.
#2 I don't share my profiles among services.
#3 How in the world did Bing get the right to snap up my profile and use it on their website?

I know that this is a total non-issue to so many "new generation" users who allow their data to be exploited in the perceived benefit of their experience. However, I'm a big advocate of putting the control firmly in the hands of the individual who generates the data. There are long term and profound impacts in allowing the government or private industry to own and control your online identity.

I think Social Search is a great thing and can be very powerful. There is little doubt the business alliance between Facebook and Bing is a huge win for Microsoft. But ONLY if the roll out is executed in a non-threatening way. To simply allow all my social activity, friends and family to be linked to my search results without allowing me to explore what that really means to these relationships is in my mind irresponsible.

If in 5 years everything about you will be digitized in some way and made accessible online in one form or another. This becomes quite literally the virtual you. How the rest of the world sees you, interacts with you on a personal, business and political level. If you have no control over this virtual identity, Government and business us YOUR data any way they wish, do you really still live in a free society?

So, freak out on us Jer, its just our profile pict on Bing, change your preferences and it will be gone. Yes, yes, I know. However, it is the overall audacity and unfortunately accepted practice, that a business can obtain and use my personal data and then ask my permission to "hide" it. Not eliminate, not remove, or stop them from using it in other ways. Just hide it.

Facebook has not exactly been a bastion of security since its formation.

Bing and Facebook do have some fantastic opportunities in combining search and social. However, they will blow these opportunities if they do not learn that being honest with their users, involving them in the process and giving them control will create the magic ingredient of trust between all three parties.