Facebook Invasion

"Whether we like it or not, the battle over privacy has already been fought. Facebook won" (“Why We'll Never Escape Facebook,” 2010).

It is hard to remember a time when I actually had to talk to someone in person to be informed of what they are doing, what they are eating, where they are at, who they are dating, what they "like", who their friends are, etc... All of that information and much, much more is only a Facebook login away. People are seemingly becoming more open with the personal information they place on the Internet, especially social networking sites, like Facebook. According to recently released research by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, only one-third of Internet users worry about how much information is available about them online (“Why We'll Never Escape Facebook,” 2010). Facebook is taking full advantage of user openness and using it to increase profits from advertising. The company's goal is to expand the range of information you're sharing and get you to share a lot more of it, and it obvious that they are succeeding (“Friends Without Borders,” 2010). If users are in complete control of what information they choose to share on Facebook, why are many users outraged with the way Facebook is marketing their information?

According to recent studies, there are now 25 billion bits of information, from web links to photo albums, shared on the site each month (“Why We'll Never Escape Facebook,” 2010). What exactly does Facebook do with all of this information? Unfortunately, no one really knows. According to James Cowan's article in Canadian Business (2010), "While Facebook doesn't sell users' information to advertisers, it remains unclear what happens to the personal data harvested by the dozens of games, quizzes, personality tests and other time wasters that clutter Facebook." Facebook's privacy policy is rather lengthy and complex, and often times changes without warning its users. Facebook is infamous for implementing programs such as instant personalization, OpenGraph, and Beacon without prior notification to its users (“Why We'll Never Escape Facebook,” 2010). These programs pull user information from various websites that people view or purchase from and use it for advertisement purposes. According to James Cowan, "The company thrives on advertising revenue, on pooling users' information and using that data to target ads at very specific demographics" (“Why We'll Never Escape Facebook,” 2010).

When I login into my Facebook account, my News Feed shows me what my friends "like" and my sidebar is constantly displaying advertisements of products that I have either researched online or products related to those items. This is one example of the data mining that the organization participates in. Some people have shown much frustration to this "invasion" of privacy, but having a Facebook account is strictly voluntary, so why not just delete the Facebook account? It is not quite that easy to pull the plug, even when your privacy is at stake, because people have become emotionally invested and attached to Facebook. Facebook should be more considerate when it comes to warning users when they are making privacy policy changes; however, users must remember that Facebook is a free, use at your own risk social networking site. If users do not like how Facebook is using the information they disclose, they probably should not be using this site at all.


References

Why We'll Never Escape Facebook. (2010). Canadian Business , 83(10), 28-32. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.dml.regis.edu/ehost/detail?vid=14&hid=126&sid=c5e9ea72-7ff8-4d47-b541-4b6b9f88a750%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=51549933

Friends Without Borders. (2010). TIME, 175(21), 32-38. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.dml.regis.edu/ehost/detail?vid=14&hid=126&sid=c5e9ea72-7ff8-4d47-b541-4b6b9f88a750%40sessionmgr104&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=aph&AN=50833790

Reana P.