Last year, Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of the Senate's Commerce and Judiciary Committees. This was a very unique hearing, as nearly half the Senate was present. The hearing was specifically prompted by a massive data leak which allowed Cambridge Analytica access to 87 million people's private information.
Among other questions, Zuckerberg was asked how targeted ads on Facebook appear, and where the data which informs them comes from. The long-running conspiracy that Facebook listens to you through your phone's microphone was shot down by the CEO, but he wasn't able to dissuade the senators from their belief that Facebook improperly harvests and uses user data.
This may be true, but why does it matter? People willingly use Facebook, and a right to privacy isn't in the constitution, it's only inferred from a handful of other rights. I think the real problem here isn't that user data is being sold, rather that the users aren't aware of it.
Facebook's terms of service is long, and 91% of Americans don't read terms of service agreements at all. In fact, the section about Facebook's data policy actually took me longer to find, it's separate from the main agreements. Regardless of whether someone read the document in the first place, it's constantly changing, meaning no one really knows whats on it. If Facebook and companies like it are actually committed to privacy and protecting their users data, they need to make sure these users know about it, and prove it.
I shouldn't have to worry that Mark Zuckerberg is stealing the pictures of me that my grandparents share on Facebook and neither should you.
This a great post with many great points. The fact that facebook hides their terms of agreement is concerning and they should be more straightforward about this fact. The idea that facebook and other social media sites can sell their users data to other companies is extremely concerning and hopefully will not happen in the future.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post, as I found the topic very interesting. I agree with your point that people should have privacy online and companies should be more transparent about what data they collect. One thing that I would like to point out is Facebook’s business model. In terms of making money, Facebook is extremely efficient: high scale, high growth, and high profit margins. The company makes money off of its user base by selling targeted advertisements. Thus, users do not need to pay to use its services. It has no cost of goods sold and does not even need to pay marketing costs. I do not believe that the government will be much help in protecting people’s rights online. The average age of Senators in the 116th Congress is 63 years old. Lawmakers may not have a good understanding of new technologies, inhibiting progress on legislation regulating the internet. Nevertheless, several companies, such as Apple, who does not depend on advertising revenue, have begun to advocate for better digital privacy.
ReplyDeleteSource:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/lensherman/2018/04/16/why-facebook-will-never-change-its-business-model/#4fce614164a7
https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R45583.pdf
I definitely agree with your claim that the problem is not the violation of privacy per se but the lack of knowledge Facebook gives to its users about how it uses data. Even after this Senate hearing, about 2/3 of Facebook users still used Facebook as much as they did the year before they heard about the privacy issues related to Facebook (according to this source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/22/facebook-users-dont-seem-to-care-about-data-scandal-analyst-says.html). It is clear, then, that some people just do not mind that Facebook might be using users' data. As a result, the answer to this privacy debate may not be to compel social media companies to not infringe people's privacy at all but rather to be open about how they might infringe upon people's privacy so that people are able to make their own choice regarding whether they wish to use a social media platform like Facebook or not.
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