3. http://www.facebook.com
Facebook is a popular free social networking
website that allows registered users to create
profiles, upload photos and video, send
messages and keep in touch with friends, family
and colleagues.
Facebook was founded by 2004 by Harvard
student Mark Zuckerberg and originally called
the facebook.
Facebook, a company grew up from a small
network site to a $50 billion company, gets
almost all the revenue from advertising. 3
5. What you don’t know about?
The only things Facebook has are the hundreds millions
accounts. Because of the large database of customers,
Facebook have so many valuable details information
for advertising, which make Facebook earn a lot.
Facebook grab users information with or without users’
allowance, and these may against users. Facebook
wants users share more information so that they can
earn more money from advertising. There are no laws
says social networks like Facebook should show the
users what do the network companies do. 5
6. 1) Perform an ethical analysis of Facebook, what is
the ethical dilemma presented by this case?
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7. Facebook serve the connection between all people
around the world and Facebook wants more
money and have many user’s, Facebook have more
user’s privacy data and more Facebook knows
about you it make Facebook serve more relevant
advertisement that they are giving users data to
the company as their research for the
advertisement because the main revenue for
Facebook it’s from advertisement and Facebook
servers would keep user information permanently
whenever the user has deleted their account
Facebook.
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8. However, Facebook’s goal is to get it users to
share as much data as possible, because the
more Facebook knows about user, the more
accurately it can serve relevant advertisement
to users.
13 million users have never adjusted
Facebook’s privacy controls, which allow
friends using Facebook applications to
unwittingly transfer user data to a third party
without user’s knowledge.
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9. Facebook is using users online activity to
develop a frighteningly accurate picture if
user’s life.
Facebook’s partnership with the Department
of Labor helps to connect job seekers and
employers as well as helped families find lost
pets after natural disasters and allow active
duty soldiers to stay in touch with their
families. These are the reasons why so many
people are on Facebook. 9
10. The only option that user have is that Internet
companies should be forced to ask for
permission before using user’s personal
information and want the ability to opt out of
online tracking.
Ethical dilemma in this case study is
Facebook monitors its subscribers and then
sells the information to advertisers and app
developers.
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11. 2.What is the relationship of privacy to
Facebook business model?
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12. 2.What is the relationship of privacy to
Facebook business model?
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13. The relation between user’s privacy and Facebook
business model is important because Advertising is
the mainly revenue of Facebook. 70% of its five
million users log in every day and they all between
18 and 24 that advertisers want to collaborate with
Facebook to make profits for both. 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.
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14. Facebook has massive capabilities to collect,
store and analyze data. This allows Facebook to
sell much targeted advertising. Therefore,
privacy is the Facebook business model.
Facebook states its regulations concerning to
the rights and responsibilities derive from the
Facebook Principles, and govern the relationship
with users and others who interact with
Facebook. The relevant statements include
Privacy Policy, Payment Terms, Platform Policies,
Ads Guidelines, Promotion Guidelines, Claims of
Intellectual Property Infringement, Claims of
Copyright Infringement, etc.
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15. 3. Describe the weaknesses of
Facebook’s privacy policies and
features. What management,
organization and technology factors
have contributed to those
weaknesses?
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16. Three highlights on Facebook’s privacy policies:
1. User decides how much information they feel
comfortable sharing on FB and user control how it
is distributed through their privacy settings.
2. FB is also a service for sharing information on FB
enhanced applications and websites. User can
control how they share information with those
third party applications and websites through
their application settings.
3. FB allow advertisers to select characteristic of
users they want to show their advertisement to and
FB use the information users share with FB to serve
those advertisements.
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17. Describe the weaknesses of Facebook’s privacy
policies and features.
1. Allowing user’s information to be shared and
made public. Continued to let other users know
what you were doing until disabled it manually.
2. The incorporation and handling of its news feed
feature. The news feed feature provided other
users that you are friends with updates of actions
that you performed while logged into FB.
3. Unable to delete FB account or any of the
information that is on user account. FB keeps a copy
of user entire account even after they deactivate it
and no longer wish to have any affiliation with FB.
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18. 4. FB’s privacy policy is difficult to comprehend.
Users normally don’t quite understand the options
on Privacy Setting. Facebook states its regulations
concerning to the rights and responsibilities derive
from the Facebook Principles, and govern the
relationship with users and others who interact
with Facebook. The relevant statements include
Privacy Policy, Payment Terms, Platform Policies,
Ads Guidelines, etc. All Facebook parties must
comply with this policy. The company has
encountered more than its fair share of controversy
along its path to success, mostly concerning its
handling and usage of the extensive information it
collects from its users.
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19. What management, organization, and technology
factors have contributed to those weaknesses?
Management:
Facebook assumed it had the consent of users to
share information about them that it collected
through the Beacon advertising service if they did
not use the opt-out feature. Facebook changed
Beacon to be an “opt-in” service and gave users the
ability to disable it completely. The company utterly
failed to grasp the extent to which the service
violated its users’ privacy as well as the uproar such
a service was likely to cause. The same thing
occurred when Facebook introduced its News Feed
feature.
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20. Organization:
The personal information collected on the site
represents a mother lode to advertisers, but one
that will remain largely untapped if Facebook
users do not feel comfortable enough or have
sufficient incentive to share it. Users that
attempted to delete their accounts were met
with resistance and often required outside
assistance from watchdog groups.
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21. Technology:
Privacy and user controls over the information
granted to Facebook are the biggest concerns most
users have with the site. Facebook grossly
miscalculated user privacy demands when it
launched the company’s Beacon advertising service
because it shared information about users that they
had not explicitly intended or agreed to share. The
service originally began as an “opt-out” feature.
Even after users opted-out, the service continued to
send information to Facebook regardless of
whether or not the user was logged into Facebook
at the time. The company’s servers maintain copies
of information indefinitely in accounts that have
been deactivated.
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22. 4.Will Facebook be able to have
a successful business model
without invading privacy?
Explain your answer. Are they
any measure Facebook could
take to make this possible?
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23. Yes, by make active changes to improve users’
privacy. So If Facebook continues to wish to use
the information that people post on their
accounts a clear distinction must be made to the
users about what they are using the information
for and what information they will be using in
order to reduce the legal risks and solidify the
legality of their advertising. Once the Facebook
management can do this then a broader, more
organized and more successful advertising
campaigns can be launched. Without invading
privacy, Facebook might grow slowly and might
fail in network business competition.
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24. Certainly, Facebook’s ability to leverage as much as possible
from advertisers may be diminished if it cannot collect every
nugget of information about its users to sell to advertisers.
However, it could make up some of the lost revenue by
charging users a premium fee for the company to not collect
as much information and restore a higher level of privacy to
those who are willing to pay for it.
The company can also allow users to view all the data it
collects on them and allow them to delete information they
deem necessary. They can also allow users to opt-out of the
tracking systems much like European users already can.
Facebook should continue to explore additional revenue
streams outside of what it already has in advertising.
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