Recently, I was interviewed by Matt Mansfield for his blog post The Elephant in the Cloud – How Safe is Your Data?. During that conversation I made the comment that I feel Software as a Service (SaaS) is easier to sell today because of Facebook. Millions of folks, well a half-billion of you at last count, now use Facebook to keep in touch with friends and relatives. Young, old, blue collar, business owner – it does not seem to matter every demographic uses Facebook.
How Facebook broke down online barriers
In 2005 ColorMetrix was ready to commercialize ProofPass.com. We had some early adopters actually push us to release almost six months ahead of schedule. These folks saw the technological benefits of being able to monitor print quality from anywhere in the world at anytime. We got excited that lots of folks would see this and jump on board. We were wrong.
Yes, most folks saw the benefits of anywhere, anytime access to the data but what we missed was people’s mistrust of the online world. We heard comments like, “our data won’t be secure,” “our competitors will hack into your system and use our quality data against us.” And my favorite, “our IT people will never let you punch a hole in our firewall.” Really? I would respond. Will your IT people let you visit Amazon.com and buy a book online? “Well, yes but that’s secure,” they would reply. We use the same technology, I’d reply.
Fear
In hindsight those were all excuses. The real problem was fear of the unknown. Many older people in the workforce might have used computers in 2005 but they sure didn’t live and work on the internet like we do today. You know what got them online in a real and significant way? Pictures. Pictures of their children and grandchildren that could only be found on Facebook. Digital cameras changed the game for SasS.
From where I sit today, it was the digital camera revolution that got millions and millions of people to signup for and use Facebook. All of a sudden the idea of logging into a web-site and interacting versus just looking something up was no longer a foreign concept. It’s gotten to the point that one customer recently asked me to make our user interface “more like Facebook.”
There is no privacy
I also want to personally thank Facebook for proving to the world that there is no such thing a true online security and privacy. It’s a myth – get over it. The key is to make sure your behavior online is above reproach. You may not think it’s all transparent but it ultimately is. Yes, including your bank records, if someone wants the information badly enough. Don’t think so? Ask Sarah Palin about her email account hacked durning the 2008 election cycle. Once you’ve got access to an email account – well, you can do plenty of damage if you want to.
That’s my take on how Facebook helped make SaaS a viable business model. Please take a moment and weigh in with a comment about your agreement or disagreement with this post.
I have to agree completely coming from an IT Security background working many years as an IT Auditor, IT Risk Management, and IT Governance consultant it has been very clear for me to explain to people how there is no privacy online even through email. It only complicates more when places like facebook decide to change there security settings all the time creating confusion on what you can restrict partially.
I also find funny how people still bunch up into one specific area trying to secure that device, hardware, or software usually leaving huge gaps. A few weeks ago I became the father I went to ask for information of how everything was going they told me they could not give me information until I was confirmed to be a family member I look down and the nurses all had patient records and other critical information just laying there which anyone could have been able to take it and go.
The same is with many businesses ignorance creates more security issues in there heads but many times they don’t walk back and look at the picture identifying the security holes. On many of the projects where I have to execute ethical hacking and social engineering most companies are later amazed on how weak they really are.
My guess most times is that they just thought of security issues in one area and forgot about the rest.
I have to agree with you thanks to Facebook there is no privacy.
Raul,
I love your example of the nurses at the hospital. Perfectly illustrates the problem with false notions of privacy and security of data.
Jim