Facebook & Privacy

Facebook Privacy, Personal Data Protection Regulation, Ethical Publishing

“Add me on Facebook!” That is what you hear from people you just meet nowadays. Facebook has become a part of our daily lives, being the largest social networking site with over 500 million users (Crunch Base 2010). With a simple click of a button, you’re able to make friends with people from a million miles away. You can share pictures, comments, videos, thoughts all with Facebook to people you know and don’t know. Facebook has become a tool for social interaction and network building amongst people (Debatin et al 2009). Though so, Facebook’s biggest loophole would be its privacy policy (Cohen 2008).

In a recent investigation by Wall Street Journal, Facebook was found to be violating its users’ privacy rights (ABC 2010). It was found that several third party applications such as Farmville were caught transmitting information of users to advertisers and Internet tracking firms (Steel & Fowler 2010).

This hurt Facebook’s policy as they promised users that, third-party applications may not share user information with outsiders (Newman 2010).  There were different kind of responses to this situation, some were outraged by the breach, but others said, “So what?” and that it was not a big deal (Hudson 2010).

Inevitably, not a lot of people know what the dangers of sharing personal information online are. While you happily click away and upload personal pictures of yourself having fun during a house party, friends, friends of friends, and even strangers are taking a look at you at an unflattering angle in your online pictures. Cohen (2008) states that sharing information online is not arguable because the users choose what to share online. The problem here would be the unintended sharing going on (Cohen 2008). For example, Facebook offers different levels of privacy settings to a user. The settings vary from setting your privacy level to let everyone on Facebook to view your information or only personal friends and family can look at things you share online (O’Neill 2009).

Various Facebook Privacy settings a user can opt to choose. Source : Facebook.com

Debatin et al (2009) claims that for the average user, the dangers of Facebook on privacy issues are not lucid, or rather not known at all. Using the iceberg model on how Facebook works, Debatin et al (2009) explains that people know Facebook as a fun social networking site, which makes up of 1/8 of what Facebook really does. The remaining 7/8 of how Facebook works is depicted by vast information of users aggregated, filtered and re-organized for use by PR, marketing and advertising companies (Debatin et al 2009).

The Iceberg Model of How Facebook Works. Source : Facebook and Online Privacy : Attitudes, Behaviors and Unintended Consequences

In conclusion, users need to know their rights to online privacy. Thinking they might be safe at home, users who share personal information online risk having their privacies invaded. Online stalking, cyber bullying, they all affect us in various ways and we need to educate ourselves with cautionary measures for our own safety.

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References

Cohen, A 2009, 'One Friend Facebook Hasn't Made Yet : Privacy Rights' New York Times 18 February, viewed 10 November 2010 <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/opinion/18mon4.html?_r=2>

Debatin, B, Lovejoy, J, Horn M.A, A, Hughes, B 2009, 'Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors and Unintended Consequences', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 15, no. 1, pp 83-103 viewed 10 November 2010 <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2009.01494.x/citedby>

Facebook 2010, Crunchbase viewed 10 November 2010 <http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook>

Facebook Admits Privacy Breach 2010, ABC News, viewed 10 November 2010 <http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/10/19/3042594.htm>

Hudson, J 2010, 'How Harmful Is Facebook's Privacy Breach?' The Atlantic Wire 18 October, viewed 10 November 2010 <http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/How-Harmful-Is-Facebooks-Privacy-Breach-5424>

Newman, J 2010, 'Facebook's Privacy Breach : What You Need To Know' PC World 19 October, viewed 10 November 2010 <http://www.pcworld.com/article/208135/facebooks_privacy_breach_what_you_need_to_know.html>

O'Neill, N 2009, 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know, All Facebook, Web Medias Brand Inc, viewed 10 November 2010 <http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-privacy-2009-02>

Steel, E & Prowler, G 2010, 'Facebook In Privacy Breach', Wall Street Journal 18 October, viewed 10 November 2010 <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304772804575558484075236968.html>