Today, people are actively involved with the practical approach of using social media platforms. The advance channel of social media used by people to share different forms of information and knowledge with the rest of the world. Facebook is recognized as the leading organization that provides foundations of active communication to its active users. Currently, the company immensely facing concerns mainly in form of mishandling of users’ privacy. There are many reported cases that revealed the company’s inefficiencies to protect users’ personal information. There is a need for offering improved and strict legal measures to regulate the business prospect of social media services effectively and efficiently.
Term Paper on Facebook and Privacy
Introduction
In recent times, social media is recognized as a technological advancement that helps people to share information and different ideas rapidly. The approach of social media realistically made it possible for people to interact with the rest of the world in no time. Undoubtedly, the prospect of social media is one of the prominent domains of globalization that enormously minimize the communication gap between people. The platform of Facebook is recognized as one dominated form of social media that ensures the interaction of millions of people. Facebook is characterized as the leading social networking site that actively connects users belongs to different parts of the world. When it comes to considering Facebook as the medium of information sharing, the risks of data theft are high. The concern of privacy is growing with each day when it comes to using Facebook as the active tool of communication networking. The issue of privacy alarmingly expanding when the management of Facebook has to face an allegation of improper and illegitimate use of users’ personal information. This concern is one big threat when it comes to establishing the usefulness of Facebook as a suitable medium of communication ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"pbEndaH4","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Blumenthal, 2018)","plainCitation":"(Blumenthal, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":218,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/ZAXFNHZD"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/ZAXFNHZD"],"itemData":{"id":218,"type":"webpage","title":"Facebook's latest privacy scandal: What we know about the company's handling of user data","container-title":"USAToday","author":[{"family":"Blumenthal","given":"Eli"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Blumenthal, 2018). The severity of privacy concerns requires a comprehensive understanding of the entire perspective to make better inferences about the approach of Facebook in the context of privacy. This paper focuses on critically analyze the entire perspective of Facebook and privacy to establish better outcomes of different cases of privacy risks. Furthermore, this information can also be viable to recognize the ways that can be used to manipulate users’ information for business purposes and their influence on the paradigm of business and management.
Discussion
The users of Facebook is increasing each day that indicates the popularity of this approach of communication. It is important to indicate that despite the increasing form of scandals, the popularity of Facebook is enormously growing and attracting many users in different parts of world. The risk of privacy issues is also increasing over the years with the emerging trend of Facebook as social media site. This specific perspective can also never be ignored as in recent times, many cases of privacy appeared for the organization of Facebook. The concern of data privacy is immensely growing that ultimately raised the question of the managerial perspective of Facebook. This issue can better apprehend through the example when Facebook faced the accusation that it provides open access to users’ information to different corporate organizations without the consent of users. These forms of allegations are serious concerns for the users when it comes to the perspective of privacy. However, the higher management of Facebook completely denied all these accusations of sharing personal information of users to its partners. These cases are significant examples of privacy concerns that are constantly being faced by active users.
The popular trend of social media websites mainly in the form of Facebook raised different concerns of users’ privacy. Undoubtedly, the privacy of people has become extensively vulnerable to critical surveillance of all the users. Uploading personal information on Facebook eventually increased people’s chances to access personal information of users. The improper knowledge of privacy settings in the case of Facebook is another critical perspective that enhances the hazards in case of data privacy ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"33ZOqpid","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Waldman, 2016)","plainCitation":"(Waldman, 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":215,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/H97YC73B"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/H97YC73B"],"itemData":{"id":215,"type":"article-journal","title":"Privacy, Sharing, and Trust: The Facebook Study","container-title":"Case W. Res. L. Rev.","page":"193","volume":"67","author":[{"family":"Waldman","given":"Ari Ezra"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Waldman, 2016). It is observed that most of the users never have a complete understanding of privacy settings that ultimately increase the vulnerability of information sharing. Understanding privacy rights is necessary to condition for the users when it comes to ensuring proper protection of personal information on social media.
The Concept of Privacy
It is important to critically examine the idea of privacy in the context of Facebook to better apprehend the issues of data protection and security. This theoretical perspective is essential to measure the recognized actual position of organization and users in the entire scenario of privacy concerns. The complex idea of privacy is characterized as the legal right of users to successfully control access to someone’s personal information. In other words, it is the opportunity for the users to maintain the overall flow of personal data referring to the approach of information sharing with desired entities. The successful implication of privacy provides more independent and individualistic prospects for users to avoid violation of personal information. It is also necessary to mention that improper implications of the concept of privacy eventually cause different negative consequences such as the issues of exploitation, establishes inequalities, confidentiality, and improper form of transparency. The successful implications of users’ privacy in case of using social media is necessary condition to accomplish the objective of users’ privacy. The right of privacy also linked with the spectrum of empowerment of users in case of sharing their personal data on Facebook sites.
Using Facebook and Concerns of Privacy
The extensive personal information sharing by users closely concerning the overall paradigm of users’ privacy. It is vital to examine how the insignificant form of the privacy policy set by Facebook increases the risk of data theft for the customers. It is a common argument about the services of Facebook that privacy and data protection in the case of users are drastically undermined by the company. Privacy abuse is one major corporate scandal that prevails for Facebook in recent times that require the necessary attention. The issue of privacy turned as the major catastrophe once it is observed that the organization is accusing of using a team of contract workers to ensure the labeling of status updates and photos of users ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"8sPbSPEo","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Rodriguez, Ingram, & Busvine, 2018)","plainCitation":"(Rodriguez, Ingram, & Busvine, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":216,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/NB3ZCESF"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/NB3ZCESF"],"itemData":{"id":216,"type":"article-journal","title":"Privacy Issues Emerge as Major Business Risk for Facebook","container-title":"Reuters, March","volume":"19","author":[{"family":"Rodriguez","given":"Salvador"},{"family":"Ingram","given":"David"},{"family":"Busvine","given":"Douglas"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Rodriguez, Ingram, & Busvine, 2018). This specific paradigm is one critical privacy concern that raised many questions about the privacy policy of Facebook.
Recent Events of Facebook Privacy Issues
Identification and critical examination of recent privacy issues in the case of Facebook are essential to measuring to successfully apprehend the concern of users’ privacy. This form of consideration is vital to determine the company’s position to ensure users’ information protection effectively and efficiently. Users' privacy is in great threat when it comes to adopting new business approaches by Facebook ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"kW1HByUf","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn, & Hughes, 2009)","plainCitation":"(Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn, & Hughes, 2009)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":217,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/TRM4PGR3"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/TRM4PGR3"],"itemData":{"id":217,"type":"article-journal","title":"Facebook and online privacy: Attitudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences","container-title":"Journal of computer-mediated communication","page":"83-108","volume":"15","issue":"1","author":[{"family":"Debatin","given":"Bernhard"},{"family":"Lovejoy","given":"Jennette P."},{"family":"Horn","given":"Ann-Kathrin"},{"family":"Hughes","given":"Brittany N."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2009"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Debatin, Lovejoy, Horn, & Hughes, 2009). The risk of information theft getting high in the case of Facebook because the company attained a huge form of revenue by allowing different organizations to advertise through the medium of Facebook.
The scandal of Cambridge Analytica is one prominent issue of privacy that appeared for the organization of Facebook. This issue appeared in March when it was observed that the company of Cambridge Analytica illegally accessed the personal data of Facebook users. There were almost 50 million users who directly influenced by this specific case of privacy issues in the case of Facebook. Individuals’ profiles and personal information considered in the form of political advertisement. This specific incident is recognized as the one that raised some serious questions on the privacy policy setting of Facebook. Due to this allegation, Mark Zuckerberg had to apologize for the mistakes of his company.
Facebook also faced the issue of glitch that caused public publishing of posts of almost 14 million active users. This particular event is characterized as one prominent concern of privacy that appeared in the case of the operations of Facebook as a social media instrument. This privacy glitch was later accepted by the company’s management as the unconscious mistake and ensure rapid fixation of this specific privacy glitch.
Hackers' control on plenty of Facebook account is another disturbing form of privacy concern that appeared in case of the suitability of the social media platform of Facebook. It is observed that hackers easily accessed and steal personal information from millions of Facebook users. This specific development greatly affected the privacy approach of Facebook as people’s trust was immense damage. Control of users’ accounts badly attacked by the hackers that ultimately affect the managerial domain of the organization of Facebook.
The owner of Facebook also faced strong allegations in the form of a lawsuit by the software organization, Six4Three considered technological advancement to access users’ personal information without their consent. This specific allegation was greatly rejected by the management of the company and eliminate the risk of data theft by the third party.
The lawsuit appeared by Six4Three eventually turned as a major legal problem for the management of Facebook. This specific phenomenon led to the active intervention of the UK parliament with the existence of specific documents. The approach of confidential documents explicitly revealed that some staff members of Facebook were involved in the discussion of selling access to users’ information to advertisers ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"xQifR8G9","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Ho, 2018)","plainCitation":"(Ho, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":219,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/K6B36IMX"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/K6B36IMX"],"itemData":{"id":219,"type":"webpage","title":"Facebook's privacy problems: a roundup","container-title":"TheGuardian","author":[{"family":"Ho","given":"Vivian"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Ho, 2018). This form of realization was one major shock for the users in the form of a successfully trusting company for their personal data.
It is crucial to indicate the appearance of these specific documents was the turning point concerning the approach of privacy in the case of Facebook. The appearance of leaked information on Facebook led the organization to faced hearing in the House of Commons. The argument presented by Facebook representatives revealed that there was the possibility of a threat some Russian users were involved in collecting huge amounts of personal information of Facebook users.
The privacy issues for Facebook turned as one great privacy when it is observed that the organization had collected text messages and phone calls records of the users through the domain of smartphone apps. This was one major concern for the users because the company was allegedly involved in these activities of data recording without the consent of users. This specific concern was immediately responded by Facebook by sharing the approach of “fact check”. The main motive of this specific consideration is to users formerly expressed their agreement to use this perspective in the future. It is important to indicate that the approach of “fact check” never allegedly explained users earlier that the history of call and text messages would be later uploaded.
The misinterpretation of the class-action lawsuit ultimately presented many different wrongdoings considering the operations of Facebook. It turned as the explicit invasion of privacy, improper assessment of potential security attacks in the growing field of communication. The approach of users’ permission was not correctly apprehended by the company concerning the access to the users’ personal chats and call logs.
The organization of Facebook comes up with the claim that it never allowed any third-party app to developers to access users’ data. This specific argument was greatly in question when it was reported by the Wall Street Journal the social network of Facebook continued to share clients’ personal information with the develops. These practices by Facebook eventually raised different concerns of users’ privacy under the domain of legal and ethical business perspective. The prevalence of these issues badly shakes the trust level of users when it comes to sharing personal information on the social media platform of Facebook. Exploration of different concerns in case of privacy issues for Facebook helps to understand the existence of disturbing elements that requires necessary and immediate fixation. It is crucial to enhance the practical domain of privacy policy settings for its users to apprehend the idea of data security and privacy protection for potential users. The functioning troubles of Facebook expanded due to the prevalence of different privacy concerns that appeared in various forms.
Negative Implications of Privacy Allegations on Facebook
It is important to identify how different forms of privacy concerns for the company eventually damage the reputation and business perspective of Facebook. Undoubtedly, the organization of Facebook paid a huge penalty in the form of loss of reputation after the allegation of hitting users’ privacy. The overall work morale of Facebook’s employees immensely decreased due to privacy concerns. People who worked on different managerial positions in the organization have resigned after the entire scenario of privacy allegation for Facebook. Statistics about the company’s business position explicitly indicate that the stock price for the organization dramatically declined by up to 20 percent. The estimated cost faced by the owner of the organization approximately $15 billion that is the major price for the organization due to the issue of improper handling of users’ data.
The consequences of data-privacy scandals were immense for the company of Facebook because higher management has to pay almost $3 billion to $5 billion to the Federal Trade Commission. The detailed inquiry approach in the form of data-privacy practices of Facebook made it essential for the company to face various forms of legal enforcement actions, fines, legal domains. The stock prices for the organization also immensely declined after the entire scenario of improper handling of users’ privacy under the spectrum of the networking communication domain.
Short-Term and Long-Term Implications of Privacy Scandal of Facebook
Identification of possible short-term and long-term implications of recent privacy concerns in the form of actions of Facebook is essential to provide better insights for the future. It is important to recognize the current position of Facebook as the social media instrument to examine the potential hazards of privacy and data theft for potential users. In other words, the implications of privacy issues in the case of Facebook need to apprehend to better understand the responsibilities of all the entities to provide better data protection to social media users.
General Awareness about Using Social Media Platforms
The appearance of the privacy issues in the case of Facebook services ultimately helps to consider the importance of data protection. It also significantly indicates the legal responsibilities of social media services providers. When it comes to legal protection of online information of users, there is existence of a limited practical approach. There is a need for offering better practical legal domains to consider the importance of online data protection and users’ privacy.
Enhancement of Transparency
The active involvement of the service provider organizations in the form of Facebook is immensely important to ensure the transparent delivery of information and knowledge for the users. The development and implementation of the proper mechanisms are an essential condition to meet the standards of transparent delivery of personal data of users by the social media channel. Active check and balance on the entire information system under the prospect of a legal framework is an obligatory condition for the company to develop a better level of trust between service providers and potential users.
The approach of Data Giants
The collection of private data requires necessary attention and vigilance by the organization’s operators and data protectors. The privacy issues in the case of users’ personal information appeared due to the application of different technologies to collect users’ data in a suspicious manner. The growing cases of data privacy by the organization of Facebook demands that the company needs to reconsider its perspective of various practices that permits customers to successfully access, retrieve, and reclaim their private form of information ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"JvUNkZ4m","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Forbes Technology Council, 2018)","plainCitation":"(Forbes Technology Council, 2018)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":220,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/5WKWLX3S"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/qLzeF6Hj/items/5WKWLX3S"],"itemData":{"id":220,"type":"webpage","title":"10 Possible Impacts Of The Facebook Privacy Scandal","container-title":"Forbes","author":[{"family":"Forbes Technology Council","given":""}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2018"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Forbes Technology Council, 2018). The existing practices in this domain need to be updated to obtain the objectives of proper data handling to ensure users’ privacy.
Paying for Data Usage
Paying for data usage is another significant option that can be considered referring to the objective of data protection and minimize the risk of data theft. National and international control of using personal data can be established as effective measures for the company to avoid the complications of data-stealing in the future. Proper development and application of the commercial agreement are necessary to condition to protect the right of every user under the paradigm of personal property. There is an option of paying for using personal information of users with their consent. This practical perspective can be considered as the option to provide better grounds of data privacy in case of using a social media platform.
Adoption of New Disclosures
The current scandals of data privacy in the case of Facebook demands an organization to closely assess the actual application of the business model. It is essential for the management to identify the potential weak areas and established better forms of data protection for the users. The detail information in the form of disclosure needs to regularly share with all the shareholders to determines the overall significance of data sharing through social media platforms. It is recommended for the organization of Facebook to offer improved measures by offering new privacy options for the customers.
Approach of Advertisement
Advertisement is one major medium used by Facebook to enhance its revenue level. It is important for the policymaker to establish some appropriate operational foundations to restrict the option of data-stealing through the option of advertisement. This perspective needs to be regularized to avoid the risk of improper use of users’ personal information without their consent.
Application of Regulations
The involvement of regulatory authorities in the form of FTC is a critical step to align social media services according to the needs of customers. It is important for legal foundations to develop a policy for social media sites to provide necessary protection to all users when it comes to data security and privacy. The application of strict legal obligations is a necessary condition to establish better ways for customers to use social media sites and share their personal information without any fear.
Conclusion
To conclude the discussion about privacy issues in the case of Facebook, it is important to indicate that this growing development is helpful to recognize different potential hazards and opportunities. The exploration of privacy concerns eventually made it essential for the company’s management to improve the privacy setting policy for its potential users. Improving privacy standards is an essential condition to meet the suitable objectives of using social media platforms for information sharing.
References
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Blumenthal, E. (2018). Facebook’s latest privacy scandal: What we know about the company’s handling of user data. Retrieved from:
Debatin, B., Lovejoy, J. P., Horn, A.-K., & Hughes, B. N. (2009). Facebook and online privacy: Attitudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 15(1), 83–108.
Forbes Technology Council. (2018). 10 Possible Impacts of the Facebook Privacy Scandal. Retrieved from:
