Yes, you did make the point about bloggers having tools to control what information is indexed. Your comment here makes the point clearer. On my reading of the interview, I wasn’t clear exactly what you meant so that’s probably why I didn’t include it in my summary.

Just to stress again what I said on this issue: I don’t think BuzzMetrics does anything shady, but I worry that companies won’t take the time to understand the nuances between what is fair game and what should be off limits. The situation we have in IR with over 100 well-respected companies using Shareholder.com’s personal web tracking product demonstrates that companies don’t always think these things through, even in areas like IR where trust is critical.

Thanks for clarifying. As for your IR/PR clients, I’m glad someone is paying attention

Regarding the privacy issue, my primary point was that social media and community sites are incorporating all sorts of privacy and permission tools which will be the basis of control in the future. “Do you want your content indexed by spiders?”, “Do you want you pictures featured in the index?”, “Do you want your profile viewable by strangers?”, etc. Those types of permissions will give users a great deal of control over the ways in which their content is viewed and aggregated.

In the meantime, the fact that your social network profile of message board postings (going a decade back!) can be found using google.com by an HR hiring manager, a parent, or a potential first-date is probably alot more concerning to most individuals than the possibility that the content might be included – totally anonymously, and in aggregate – in a market research database.

Regarding PR/IR crowd – this is a key group for our business. As a matter of fact, PR firms were really the first people to “get” our idea back when we started in 1999-2001, before blogs took the marketing world by storm. Although budget for CGM projects often lives with the brand or marketing depts, PR/IR is definitely a core user of our services.