Two great posts on Sellsius that get the old noggin working this weekend:
The Human Listing Site: Zillowfying Your Privacy Under the Guise of Transparency
This tongue in cheek entry suggests that in the interest of transparency, a site could be created compiling all public information about individuals. Did you get thrown into the pokey in college? Posted on the net. It brings to light the loss of privacy that technology breeds.
Is Zillow Using Our Homes As Bait?
This article attracted a lot of discussion about Zillow's insidious premise; you aren't entitled to privacy about your asset. Anybody, anywhere can reveal issues about your property. Good commentary from lots of people here.
A quick digression so you understand my motives with my Zillow 180:
I noticed that one commenter on Sellsius questioned my credibility since I've done a proverbial 180 on the Zillow issue. I don't blame him one bit. My very public endorsements of the new Zillow features would beg that question. I answered it this way:
He said: “The hard sell approach is wearing on the credibility”
I replied: That’s potentially true, Landed Gentry. I recognize that. I am an overly enthusiastic person and that is often my downfall. I think Zillow has tremendous potential as a marketing tool for Rs and LOs if approached correctly.
I am an active marketer of loans. I’m not a tech guy. I originate every single day and teach 5 others how to do this job. I’m a back-slapping, garrulous, hand shaking sales guy. I go at something hard when I think it has value. Having disclosed that to you, it might explain my motivation. Take my “endorsements” with a grain of salt; I’m just a salesman who thinks he found a cool way to market.
FWIW, my overly enthusiatic activity in Zillow in my home zip code resulted in a slap on the wrist from the Z-folk.
So here's my thoughts about what Zillow.com did with these new features; they capitalize on an insidious trend (in the sense that it works in a stealthy manner). Insidious but brilliant. Zillow.com capitalizes on the technological advances and the byproduct is a loss of privacy. It's been happening for centuries, though. Consider these insidious opportunists who capitalize on the loss of privacy:
I'll start with the Roman Empire around the Common Era. The censors compiled census data which could be "bought" by merchants. In the mid 1300s, one of the byproducts of alchemy was the study of chemistry and medicine. This allowed people to be stratified by health conditions, benefiting society as a whole but exposing personal issues to neighbors. Fracastoro advances epidemiology in 1546 alienated the diseased even more. 300 years later, Louis Pasteur righted that wrong.
The Chinese did it in 1040 but Johann Gutenberg advanced movable type so we could mass produce rumor about virtually anthing via the handbill. Samuel Morse started a telecommunications boom in 1837 allowing private information about your neighbor to be transmitted across the country almost instantaneously. 40 years later, Alexander Graham Bell, created gossip lines. The automobile invaded the privacy of country folk everywhere in the late 19th century.
I think you can get my drift.
Technology is moving faster and spreads insidiously (in a sense that it is fast and stealthy). Personal privacy is almost always the byproduct of a technological advance. It seems lousy at first but society can benefit as a whole. I am amazed at the power information could have to reduce costs to consumers.
If the NAR hordes market information and some bright guys choose to create a new market with the help of market participants, can that be a bad thing?