GfK TechTalk is developing a new series of posts around the work we’re doing to marry information and communication in a story of beauty, creativity and good research sense.  Over the next few months, we’ll be sharing our examples of work we’ve built around infographics, animation and video, all designed to help overcome the challenge of information overload, help businesses see more from research, and capture our audiences’ imaginations when telling stories about technology, ideas, business and society.

The last time you searched for information online, how many returns were there?  And the last time you needed to find some evidence to support an argument or theory, how many books, magazines and publications did you consult?  What about businesses, how many sources of data do you think they track, monitor, and purchase on an average day to understand what their customers think and want, what the market is doing and what their competitor’s next moves may be?  The answer is lots.  Heaps.  Tons.  More than, perhaps, we can imagine.

A recent UK study finds consumers have less faith in Facebook than either Microsoft or Google to keep their personal information private

Social networking sites typically involve disclosing often very personal information to your circle of friends and to this end, it is important to have faith that the social networking brand will respect the privacy of this information.  Recent research by GfK Technology indicates, however, that Facebook has lower levels of trust in keeping personal information private than either Microsoft or Google.  Given the remarkably high levels of usage of Facebook this is clearly a concern for the brand owners.

This illustrates the dilemma facing organisations such as Facebook – whilst consumer behaviour or personal information can be key to creating new services that are enjoyed by users, there is often a sense of unease about data being used in this way.  Furthermore, as is likely the case with Facebook, the illicit activity of unscrupulous users of the service (such as those posing as friends in order to conduct fraud of some description) has a knock-on effect for the brand.