Difference between revisions of "Facebook"

Revision as of 03:32, 1 December 2011

Facebook is the revolutionary social-networking site founded in 2004. Facebook users share their identity - to a certain extent their sense of self - and personal information to their online social network by means of their user Profile and by sharing information with other users. Everything that a user posts to Facebook is the ownership of the individual user, but everything in regard to intellectual property, the user gives Facebook a “non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook” (Facebook terms of service). While a user owns the information, Facebook is able to mind that information in order to offer personalized ads to users, thus generating revenue from user’s personal information.

Facebook Features

Through the use of user Profiles users are able to share their photos, interests, and personal information to their social-network. Furthermore, users are able to communicate to each other by posting publicly on ‘friends’ walls, sending private messages to other users and chatting with ‘friends’ through the use of Facebook chat/messages. Recently Facebook introduced two new features: Timeline and Frictionless Sharing that takes users sharing of information to new heights. Through the timeline users will be able to create a timeline of their entire life for their friends to see. Moreover, through the use of frictionless sharing the need for users to manually share experiences to Facebook is removed. For example, a user of Spotify will now have the songs the user is listening to automatically posted to that users wall for his/her friends to see.

Ethical concerns surrounding Facebook

There are several ethical implications regarding Facebook’s use of user information.

Information Transparency

It is unclear how Facebook uses the information that they collect to provide personalized to individual users. Furthermore, it is unclear exactly what information Facebook is collecting. Do they keep track of every single time a user logins in or out.

Other Ethical Considerations

Several applications such as Spotify require that a user have a Facebook account in order to use that application. Such requirements don’t give users a choice and to a certain extent monopolize the Facebook platform.

Federal Trade Commission

On November 29, 2011, Facebook and the Federal Trade Commission came to an agreement regarding the protocol of protecting users' rights to privacy. The settlement addressed concerns that Facebook was not upholding "the promises about privacy that it makes to its hundreds of millions of users."^[1]

Complaints

• In December 2009, Facebook changed its website so certain information that users may have designated as private – such as their Friends List – was made public. They didn't warn users that this change was coming, or get their approval in advance.
• Facebook represented that third-party apps that users' installed would have access only to user information that they needed to operate. In fact, the apps could access nearly all of users' personal data – data the apps didn't need.
• Facebook told users they could restrict sharing of data to limited audiences – for example with "Friends Only." In fact, selecting "Friends Only" did not prevent their information from being shared with third-party applications their friends used.
• Facebook had a "Verified Apps" program & claimed it certified the security of participating apps. It didn't.
• Facebook promised users that it would not share their personal information with advertisers. It did.
• Facebook claimed that when users deactivated or deleted their accounts, their photos and videos would be inaccessible. But Facebook allowed access to the content, even after users had deactivated or deleted their accounts.
• Facebook claimed that it complied with the U.S.- EU Safe Harbor Framework that governs data transfer between the U.S. and the European Union. It didn't.

Settlement

Specifically, under the proposed settlement, Facebook is:

• barred from making misrepresentations about the privacy or security of consumers' personal information;
• required to obtain consumers' affirmative express consent before enacting changes that override their privacy preferences;
• required to prevent anyone from accessing a user's material more than 30 days after the user has deleted his or her account;
• required to establish and maintain a comprehensive privacy program designed to address privacy risks associated with the development and management of new and existing products and services, and to protect the privacy and confidentiality of consumers' information; and
• required, within 180 days, and every two years after that for the next 20 years, to obtain independent, third-party audits certifying that it has a privacy program in place that meets or exceeds the requirements of the FTC order, and to ensure that the privacy of consumers' information is protected.

Facebook usage in the past years

References

1. ↑ http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/11/privacysettlement.shtm Federal Trade Commission