A wide range of businesses have seized on Facebook as a savvy tool for marketing, recruiting and other purposes, but the social media site's history of ignoring privacy rights does not bode well for corporate users. The launch of face recognition technology throughout the site last week, and the decision to opt users in automatically, is just the latest demonstration that the company is not ready for enterprise prime time, writes InformationWeek's Laurianne McLaughlin.

"Some people find the very notion of facial recognition creepy. It conjures visions of Minority Report, of terrorist watch lists, of big brother," she writes. "The universal reaction to this scenario is at best a cringe, even if the worst that anyone will see is your 80's or 90's hairstyle."

Facebook does offer users privacy options, of course, but it makes them so complicated, with a dizzying level of detail, that a lot of users are scared off. When employees are using Facebook for work, where does this leave them? Should your IT team have to be fielding constant questions (and Facebook's privacy missteps do seem to be a constant phenomenon) about the site's byzantine privacy and security policies?

Other consumer-driven IT offers a markedly different example of technology transfer to the enterprise, McLaughlin writes. Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), for example, needs work to become truly enterprise-grade, but a lot of companies have reached a comfort level in using some apps like Google Docs.

"Facebook's painful adolescence on privacy isn't just bad news for Facebook's business. It's bad news for all enterprises, particularly those of you in the business to consumer sector, who are working hard at innovative ways to build brand loyalty with your customers via Facebook pages," she writes. "Every time Facebook ticks off a customer about privacy enough to make the person walk away, that's bad news for you."

For more:
- see Laurianne McLaughlin's column at InformationWeek

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