From a public relations point of view Reid Hoffman has made a goose of himself. As any CEO should know, what a person in authority says in any forum should be well thought through. And some issues, like privacy, are especially sensitive.
And yet at the 13 minute point in the below video Hoffman clumsily states that ‘..concerns about privacy tend to be old people issues.’ .
The founder of LinkedIn should know that any comment on privacy has to be very carefully and clearly annunciated, so there is no doubt about interpretation. What Hoffman says is neither carefully said nor clearly annunciated.
As have have said in another blog (Reputation and the virtual landscape) most young people have a more relaxed attitude to privacy issues and the web. The more experienced people are, the more cautious they tend to be. So yes, privacy tends to be an old person’s issue. But, custodians and people in power should have another level of caution altogether; all of us rely on the regulators, governments and founders of organisations like LinkedIn to be caretakers for us on a number of levels, privacy being just one of them.
From a public relations point of view, Hoffman would be smart to clarify what he said. As he knows, what he says is preserved for ever on the web. He can’t run, he can’t hide from what’s on the record.
