“But we haven’t changed anything!”

One community manager is receiving
criticism for privacy issues in his community (no, not Facebook).

Nothing in his community has changed – it’s
simply a bigger community now. He’s treating his data the same way as he always has. 

However, once your community becomes big enough to
matter, you become a target. 

All the minor issues become very important.
One day your platform might be fully reliable and you might have no security,
privacy, legal (or even personal safety) concerns.

The next day your platform is crumbling
under the weight of popularity. Dozens of hackers are trying to steal members' passwords. Members are complaining about the same privacy policies you’ve had
for years. A company is suing you for members posting their copyright material
in your community, and one member just looked up the address of you and your
family on Facebook.

Telling the community that you “haven’t changed anything” isn’t the
solution – it’s the problem.

As the community grows you need to change
things. If you’re running a rapidly growing community, start preparing for big
changes now. You have to become more professional in your approach.

This almost certainly means spending money.
You need someone that has experience in community platforms for large
communities. You need to consult a lawyer to identify potential threads and
negate these risks. You need to spent a lot of time researching privacy
policies that work. You need to find a someone with a lot of experience in
security.

The best advice we offer is to get the best
advice you can. Find those that run huge communities in your country and ask
for their help.