1) Perform an ethical
analysis of Facebook. What is the ethical dilemma presented by this case?
Facebook
is the leading Social Networking Site of the World. Facebook mission is to make
the world more open and connected. Facebook helps Internet users stay connected
with their friends, families, and colleagues. It helps them discover and learn
more about what is going on in the world around them. It helps them express
themselves by sharing their opinions, ideas, photos, and activities. However,
what the company actually does is to share tons of information about users with
large multinational advertisers to bring the benefit for it. Advertisers can
engage with users based upon the information shared by users such as age,
gender, location, education, work history or specific interests. Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg often says that people want to be more open and connected. It's
unclear whether that is truly the case, but it is certainly true that Facebook
wants the world to be more open and connected because it stands to make more
money in that world.
2) What is the
relationship of privacy to Facebook’s business model?
Talking
privacy to Facebook is a bit ironic. Facebook’s entire business model is based
on aggregation and sharing user information. They give people a free social
media platform to use and in turn sell advertising and insights based on what
they learn about user. Facebook has massive capabilities to collect, store and
analyze data. This allows Facebook to sell very targeted advertising.
Therefore, privacy is the Facebook business model.
3) Describe the
weaknesses of Facebook’s privacy policies and features. What management,
organization, and technology factors have contributed to those weaknesses?
The
weakness behind Facebook's privacy issues was a lack of communication between
Facebook and its users. Users were not aware that they were able to control
what information was being shared with external parties.
Facebook’s
use of their Beacon advertising service caused the first problem for users.
This service served as a way to inform users of purchases and activities of
their friends outside of Facebook. There were two problems with this service,
first it was an opt-out service, meaning the users themselves had to turn off
the service to not have their information shared, and second even when users
turned off the service it continued to share their information.
The
introduction of the “news feed” was met with opposition from users because they
felt it was too invasive. Instead of only sharing status updates the news feed
shared additional information such as profile updates, adding new friends, and
adding new applications.
Incorrectly
handling user information when deleting their accounts also caused a backlash
for Facebook. Facebook servers would keep user information permanently, with
the reasoning that it would be easier for the users to reactivate their
accounts if they chose to.
4) Will Facebook be
able to have a successful business model without invading privacy? Explain your
answer. Are there any measures Facebook could take to make this possible?
Facebook
as a social networking website provides people with many kinds of advantages to
communicate with others. Facebook target market based on their demographic
information, hobbies, regions, and specified criteria in a comfortable and
engaging environment. People can find their friends, see the updates of
friends’ profiles, communicated with each other, and use different applications
on it. Business model intends to generate revenue and profits. As more and more
people register the site, the brand image is increasing. Based on the network
effect, users do businesses on the site. Facebook was widespread fast among
high schools, colleges and universities that provide an easy way to find
friends. This made students want to join in it also because of narrow potential
network with details in school activities. Facebook’s value and growth
potential is determined by how effectively it can leverage the personal data is
aggregated about its users to attract advertisers. Advertising is the mainly
revenue of Facebook. Therefore, in my opinion, I don’t think Facebook will be
able to have a successful model without invading privacy.
No comments:
Post a Comment