Slashdot picked up this great post by a Microsoft Developer that shuts down a possible future crisis. with words like:

Back-door nonsense

Two weeks ago BBC News published an article speculating about a possible “back door” in BitLocker (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4713018.stm).
The suggestion is that we are working with governments to create a back
door so that they can always access BitLocker-encrypted data.

 

Over my dead body.

Now that is a good crisis response. And PR would never have written "over my dead body" in a press release. I love it! And it helps Microsoft. Its all good.

A tip of the hat to KT for the links!

This was a PR disaster waiting to happen for Nike given their strong female constituency. 

Here is the rewrite from Media Orchard.  Now we just need the style-like-brokeback to the future mashup on YouTube!

Media Orchard on Nike Kobe Bryant Commercial:

Hate my selfishness.

Hate my lies, my infidelity.

Hate the fact that my high-powered attorneys got me off and humiliated my accuser when I was charged with rape.

And hate that I’m loved, because America only cares who wins the damn game.

My regrets to Karl Rove for getting pulled into this.  He is probably innocent.

And if Nike is looking for who they SHOULD sponsor, I have a suggestion for an amazing athlete.

But I do have an urgent request for Riya to help protect privacy.  I think an individual, perhaps a non-user, should be able to opt out of the sharing and feature set of Riya.  I should not have to register with the site to do this.  Just an option to say "hey – if two people upload their address books and I am in both, please don’t share the training and identification features."

This seems reasonable, right?  Just an option to exclude an individual based on their wishes.  The image at right was on the coverage page for Riya here.  And here is an excerpt that does concern me.

"Now, there is an even faster way to train Riya.

If you click on the auto training tab and let Riya analyze your address book.  Riya will determine which of the people you know have been trained by other friends and family.  If so, those people will be automatically recognized without you having to do any training at all."

I should be able to opt out of that. 

Good PR includes crisis communications, and crisis communication is MOSTLY about crisis prevention. 

If I may be so bold as to make a suggestion, ideally I’d like to hear the CEO talking about ensuring privacy every time he does a demo.  And I’d like a privacy link on the home page that talks, in plain language, about the importance of privacy for the company.  Then be sure to walk the talk. 

Two reasons why the above is so important.  1) I am not the only privacy nut on the Internet and it WILL turn into a crisis if not addressed proactively.  Just ask Sony.  2) If I were a competitor of Riya, this is where I would attack.  Not addressing privacy and security proactively is your open flank.  You have worked too hard to leave the opportunity open to spamming competitors.  Close the gap! 

Talk about privacy and let people opt out of others sharing their identity please.

Public relations has changed in a big way over the past two years. Sure, you still need a PR department, but the most important thing is to have your executives and product managers blogging authentically with your customers.

Here is the outline, and it is truly something out of a textbook with frankness, humility, actionable lessons.  Job well done on the post at least, although turning ads loose without warning isn’t a way to endear the public.

Here is the top level summary, and it is a well articulated PR post

1. Huge disclaimer
2. What happened
3. Background
4. What we did wrong
5. What we did right
6. What should we do next
7. Reader Comments

He even has the class to discuss Mena’s success with SixApart crisis/honest communication.  As a typepad user, I appreciate that.

LOS ANGELES: Tom Cruise has relieved his sister, Lee Anne DeVette, of her publicist duties and hired Rogers & Cowan to represent him and his company, Cruise-Wagner Productions.

From a PR perspective clearly Tom had a problem with crisis communication, and perhaps more at the root cause was the complete failure at crisis avoidance.  He makes an easy target as a celebrity, all the more reason to hire on skill versus blood.

Now the question is if Bridegroom Productions will update Me-sci-ah on the next run?

I’d love to know the RSS feeds they are watching along with a copy of their Google Alerts.  Now THAT would be interesting.  Plus a story like this is nothing but post-bait for a site like BoingBoing.  Hmmm.

I guess we will have to wait, but at some point I’d love to see a write up about the configuration of the room, the decisions that led up to the crisis communication team members, and the response methodology from a public relations perspective.