Facebook Privacy

     

        Privacy, we all are trying to have it.  But what is privacy?  Privacy is the claim of individuals to be left alone (Laudon & Laudon, 2014).  Facebook is social media used worldwide.  It is good for keeping in contact with family and friends, also keeping them informed of your life’s daily activities, videos, messaging and pictures.  People who signed up for services of Facebook have legitimate claim to privacy even though they themselves posted information about themselves.  The user posted information for use with family and friends.  “The worst thing is Facebook's underlying prejudice against privacy. Sign up and it assumes you want to share as much data as possible (Dicing with data; Facebook, Google and privacy., 2010).  It is assumed by subscriber their personal information will not be shared or used without their consent.  Unfortunately, Facebook collects user’s interest and data, and share it without users consent or any knowledge to outside companies for advertisement.  It is well known fact that Facebook made 85% of their revenue by advertisement. 

Trying to protect privacy with privacy settings of Facebook account is really confusing and complicated.  It is made that way since there is no clear Federal law to protect consumer.  Privacy laws were based on Fair Information Practices from 1973.  It is a set of principles leading on the concept of a mutuality of interest between the record holder, in this case Facebook, and the individual. 

        Facial recognition software is new service of Facebook.  It is designed to make user experience easier for tagging, but if one takes deeper look will see deeper problems that it can create.  This feature of Facebook is “opt out”, which means user will have to change privacy settings and opt out of this feature. 

Reference

Dicing with data; Facebook, Google and privacy. (2010, 05 22). Retrieved 01 25, 2014, from The Economist: The worst thing is Facebook's underlying prejudice against privacy. Sign up and it assumes you want to share as much data as possible

Laudon, K. C., & Laudon, J. P. (2014). Management Information Systems: Managing the Digital Firm. Boston, MA: Pearson Learning Solutions.

Image from: http://www.hr.ubc.ca/hr-networks/2013/01/data-privacy-day-jan-28-2013/