Facebook

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Facebook is a social-networking site, founded by Mark Zuckerberg at Harvard University in 2004. What originated in a college dorm with Zuckerberg and a few of his friends has turned into one of the most frequently visited websites with over 800 Million active users. Users must register and can then log in, create a profile, interact with their friends, post photos, and join different groups. Users can categorize their friends by school, family, "close friends," or other categories of the like. Facebook allows its users to connect with each other from all around the world.

History

Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg

Harvard

Mark Zuckerberg developed a site called "Facemash" while he was an undergraduate at Harvard. The site displayed four photos of Harvard University students, two males and two females, and prompted the user to vote on which was "hotter." [1] The popularity of this site inspired Zuckerberg to create another social website, thefacebook.com, which was again created from his dorm room at Harvard University. It launched in February of 2004, and was exclusively for Harvard Students. The website immediately took off, with almost half of Harvard students registering for the site within the first month it was active.

Despite the site's immediate success, Zuckerberg still had issues to deal with concerning the creation and inspiration of thefacebook.com. After the site launched, three other harvard students, Cameron Winklevoss, Tyler Winklevoss, and Divya Narendra, accused Zuckerberg of misleading them, due to the fact that he had agreed to help build them a similar website, that would be called Harvard Connection.

Expansion

One month later after the facebook.com was launched at Harvard, Zuckerberg expanded registration to Columbia University, Yale University, and Stanford University. Shortly after registration was open to with other colleges and universities. In 2005, Zuckerberg dropped the "the" from the name, making it simply facebook.com, which is what the website is known as today. In September 2005, registration became open to all high school students, requiring an invitation to join. Facebook kept expanding, until September 2006 when it was opened up to anyone over the age of thirteen with a valid email address.

Film

On October 1st, 2010 the movie The Social Network, directed by David Fincher and starring Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, was released. The movie was a blockbuster success, raising over 224,920,315 USD in the box office, and was critically acclaimed, winning a multitude of awards. The movie was based off of the book Accidental Billionaires, by Ben Mezrich, and although no one involved in the development of Facebook was consulted on the script and production of the movie, Eduardo Saverin was a consultant for Mezrich's book. Zuckerberg has criticized the movie for its many inaccuracies.

Today

Currently, Facebook is close to an IPO or initial public offer. This would allow the public to own equity in the company for the first time in the site's existence. Despite the fact the Zuckerberg is hesitant to take the company public, there are rumors saying that an IPO is expected sometime between April and June 2012 [2].

Facebook Features

Through their profiles, Facebook users are able to share their photos, interests, and personal information with their social network. Users are able to communicate with each other by posting publicly on the walls of Facebook friends, sending private messages to other users and chatting with their Facebook friends through Facebook chat or messages in both text and video.

Connecting with Other Users

Friending

Friending is the act of connecting with someone through Facebook. Users can search for people they want to connect with by name or email address, get recommended by other friends, or have Facebook suggest friends for them. After someone requests to connect with another, called friend requesting, the user must accept them as a friend. They are also given the option to put the friend into a category, such as a family member, work friend, housemates, etc. If the user does not want to connect with the requester, they are able to reject the request. Once you are friends with someone, you are able to remove them, called de-friending, if you no longer wish to be friends with them on Facebook. You are also able to block a user where you are not able to find the person or view their profile on Facebook any longer.

Facebook Wall

The main page of a user's profile is called the wall. This is where anything the user posts, such as links, photos, status updates, etc. is shown. Other users may also a post public message on another person's wall. The message can be text, photo, video, sharing a link, etc. and are visible to anyone who has access to the wall which is being posted on. The user may choose to hide certain stories or categories of stories. There is also the ability to comment on the posts or click the "like" button which will show your name with a thumbs up next to it. Posts are unlimited.

Facebook Chat

Facebook chat is very similar to other instant messaging platforms, such as AOL AIM, MSN Messenger, or Google Talk. Users are able to chat one-on-one with others, or form chat groups with multiple users. As long as both users are logged onto Facebook, they are able to interact and chat. Mobile applications have recently been developed that allow Facebook to forward their messages to users' mobile devices, even if they are not directly logged onto Facebook. Even without a mobile application, chat messages sent to an offline user results in a message being sent to the users message inbox. Recently, Facebook teamed up with the video chat service Skype to allow users to video chat through Facebook.

Comments and Liking

A way that many users interact with other users on Facebook is by commenting on or liking their Facebook friends' posts. Commenting on something posted, refers to writing a message in response to what someone has shared that is visible right below whatever was posted. Liking something on Facebook refers to clicking on a thumbs up button, that signifies without words, enjoyment in the posted material.

Tagging

Users can tag their Facebook friends in their status updates, wall posts and other posts by including the "@" character before their name, which turns it into a link to the tagged user's profile. This tagging feature has been recently updated to allow users to tag people without the use of the "@" character by simply typing their name as well as changing the feature to be able to link to a friend by just using their first or last name. This is used to make sure that a specific friend notices that something is posted.

Messaging

Facebook allows its users to send private messages to each other through an inbox function. It is similar to the chat application, except the message appears in an inbox instead in a chat pop-up window. As with Facebook chat, messaging allows for the sending of group messages that can accumulate in a thread. Messages are sent to an individual or a group of individuals and therefore are not public to everyone on Facebook. Another user can have the ability to send a message to someone they are not friends with if that other user has their privacy settings set to that.

Poking

Facebook allows its users to "poke" another user, which shows up in their News Feed. It is the equivalent of someone attempting to get another person's attention. Users are given the option to poke back, or simply ignore the poke. Mark Zuckerberg described the poke function as follows: "When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings." [3] Some users can engage in what they call "poke wars" and poke each other until one user decides to stop, and thus loses the war.

Groups

Facebook allows its users to form groups, that can be accessed via the sidebar. Users can post comments, messages, links, videos and photos to the group. Privacy settings allow users to control which people have access to the group and which people are able to post to the group. Users can belong to up to 300 different groups. People use groups for school clubs, groups of friends, class projects, or any other small community that people want to connect with.

Sharing on Facebook

Facebook's login page

News Feed

The news feed appears on the homepage of Facebook after the user logs in. It contains an up-to-date thread of your Facebook friends' recent activity. It shows which of your friends connect with new people, photos your friends have posted, friends' status updates, wall-posts, etc. It also contains upcoming events, your friends birthdays, and changes to users' profiles. A recent update allows users to swap between top stories and recent stories. Recent stories are a list of up to date actions that are occurring on all your friends' Facebook pages. Top stories are the most popular stories, indicated by a lot of comments or likes. Users are also able to mark which stories are top stories, or unmark stories that are listed as top stories. A new feature, Timeline, will modify the user homepage to focus on more significant events and span a longer period of time than it currently does.


Status Updates

A status update is a message composed by a Facebook user for all of his or her friends to read. It gets posted in the user's profile and can show up in the News Feed, depending on its popularity. Users can comment on status updates and also like them. The original use of the status update was to inform their friends what they are doing or how they are feeling at that current moment in time. It has evolved now to become a larger domain, where users post articles of interest, quotes, ideas; basically anything that comes to mind. Originally the status would read as "[user name] is ___" but the preface has been dropped, allowing the user to speak in the first person.

An example of a photo album on Facebook

Photos

Facebook allows its users to upload photos and create photo albums that can be viewed on their profile. Users can tag their friends in their photos, so they will also appear on the tagged users' profiles. Photos allow people to see what activities their friends have been doing, and connect with people living in distant places who they do not see very often. Users are also able to comment on photos or like photos. Photos are able to be shared on other peoples' profiles, even if they themselves are not in the photo. Facebook is currently the largest online photo hosting website.

Like Pages

Like pages on Facebook range from topics of interest to places to people to ideas. When a user likes a page, they become a fan of that page. Owners of Like pages are able to access information about their fan base, similar to Google Analytics. Like pages can have an infinite number of fans, whereas a single user's profile can only have 5,000 friends. Users' liked pages will show up in their profile under interests. Liking a page is used in order to share an user's interests with their Facebook friends. Like Pages have also come to be know as "Fan Pages" with corporations promoting themselves. The Fan Pages have become profitable for these corporations through several functions. Studies have shown that people who like a corporation on Facebook are more likely to purchase their products. Companies like Delta and Victoria's Secret provide a feature to purchase gift cards or book flights through their Facebook page, promoting commercialization without having to leave the social media site. They also let people share their potential purchases to show their friends and gain more business through peer reviews. [4]

Frictionless Sharing

Frictionless sharing integrates third-party products with Facebook, and shares information between them. For example, connecting Spotify to Facebook lets you see your Facebook friends' playlists within Spotify, and posts the songs that you've listened to on Facebook.

Other

Notifications

Facebook users can access their notifications from a button in the upper left hand corner of the page. Users are notified whenever their is new activity concerning them on Facebook, such as when someone accepts their friend request, when they are invited to an event, when someone posts to one of the groups they belong or to their wall, when they are tagged in a photo, when someone comments on one of their photos or posts, etc. Users are notified of new notifications via a red flag appearing above the notifications button. Users are able to select what type of notifications they wish to receive and are able to get notifications sent to their email or mobile phone.

Applications

The applications that Facebook has developed are Events, Photos, Videos, Marketplace, Notes, and Places. Events lets users create events of any variety, customize the descriptions and associated photos and finally, invite as many or as few of their friends as they choose. The Photos and Videos applications allow users to upload their generated content for other users to see, comment on, and like. Marketplace is a place where users can post ads for housing, jobs, and other miscellaneous objects. This service is completely free and accessible to all Facebook users. Notes is a blog-esque application where users can post their own notes for their friends to see. Notes are usually of a more personal and reflective nature as opposed to wall-posts and other forms of interaction on Facebook. Places is an application that has become more popular as the mobile Facebook application has taken off. This application allows users to "Check-In" at various locations and display it on the user's page for their friends to see[5]. [6]

Ethical Concerns of Facebook

Privacy

Overview of privacy options

Facebook also has certain privacy controls to help users stay as anonymous as possible on Facebook. These include but are not limited to:

  • Controlling who can see what aspects of your profile
  • Controlling what photos are visible
  • The ability to de-tag photos
  • Controlling who can comment and like things you posts
  • Controlling what stories get published to the newsfeed
  • The ability to delete posts off your profile
  • Using https instead of http whenever possible
  • Ability to be "offline" and not on Facebook chat
  • Specifically exclude certain people from certain aspects of your Facebook identity
  • Ability to be unsearchable on Facebook and the greater World Wide Web
Facebook's new Timeline profile design exposes more of one's privacy with such features as the Cover Photo and the ability to easily access a person's history.

Collecting Information and Transparency

It is unclear what information Facebook collects from their users and what they use that information to do. Many users have noticed personalized adds, which shows that Facebook profiles each of its users with the information that the user supplies in their Facebook profile. It is also unclear with whom exactly Facebook is sharing all of the information the gather with.

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."[7]

Complaints[7]

  • 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[7]

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.

Identity issues on Facebook

The concept of online identity applies very aptly to a social network like Facebook. A profile is a representation of one's personality and identity. Users have the ability to customize a profile by adding a set of interests and personal experiences. Since, the Internet is a free environment, there is no limitation on the kind of information that is provided. This leads to the idea that users have the option to conceal or add false information. Projecting false images can lead to several consequences. First of all, it can create a lot of room for dishonesty. Users may take up a false name and a fake occupation only to join various groups and thus, misuse the information exchanged through them. There is very little evidence of the information provided on Facebook, say for example about the users’ gender, age, family members or religion. One way of cross checking is to identify mutual friends or tagged photos, pending the user's privacy settings. However, there always remains an element of uncertainty about the person’s existence.

Changing the Way People Work

Many businesses are increasingly using the internet for the purpose of advertisement. Since, Facebook is used by millions of people worldwide, it is seen as a huge marketing platform by businessmen and advertisers. Therefore, people are increasingly tying to promote their businesses and services via Facebook. This has introduced a new set of ethical implications.

Impact

Facebook uses a recommendation system which uses users personal information such as interests, recent activities, and location to suggest advertisements. This can be a big area of concern with both positive and negative kinds of responses. Some people usually do not approve of the idea of manipulating their private information to help advertising agencies. Such people do not see it as a decent form of marketing strategy and often deem it an immoral act. While a user owns his/her information, Facebook is able to mine that information in order to offer personalized ads, and thus generate revenue from users' personal information. On the other hand, some people appreciate the idea and comment that such a form of technology is very smart as it can predict people's behavior and act accordingly. This seems to be a new locus of concern for all ethical theorists and there is an ongoing discussion about the pros and cons about the introduction of advertisement on Facebook.

Other Ethical Considerations

Ownership of Information

Everything that a user posts to Facebook is the property of the user. However, Facebook's license agreement describes that with 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. [8]. Then, the question that arises is: who owns the information posted on Facebook? Even though users can claim to own their own information, Facebook can use it for other purposes like collecting information to generate trends regarding usage or may use it to generate advertisements.

Facebook versus Offline Human Interaction

As previously stated, Facebook allows users to "add other users as friends". However, there is no requirement that these "friends" are friends of the user offline as well as online. A friend request can be sent and accepted by anyone regardless of their real-world relationship with the user. The phenomenon of labeling mere acquaintances (or even strangers) as friends challenges the definition of the word "friend". Are you popular if you have over 1000 Facebook friends?

Facebook Usage

Number of Facebook users from Dec. 2004 to Sept. 2011
Year Total Facebook Users In Millions
2004 1 million
2005 5.5 million
2006 12 million
2007 50 million
2008IPO 100 million
2009 250 million
2010 550 million
2011 800 million

See Also

References

  1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facemash#Facemash
  2. http://www.mobiledia.com/news/118214.html
  3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_features#General
  4. http://www.business2community.com/social-media/likes-fans-and-followers-how-much-are-they-really-worth-099520
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_features#Applications
  6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook_features
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2011/11/privacysettlement.shtm Federal Trade Commission
  8. http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms