Paper 2: Facebook-generated data
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Due: April 20. Your paper must be submitted electronically,
either via email or through the Blackboard digital dropbox.
Facebook collect lots of information about you. Much of it you know about; you gave
it to them after all, this is the "user-posted" content. But some is
less obvious, or "Facebook-generated" (not literally true in an
information-theoretic sense, but a plausible term; we might also call
it "non-user-posted" data). For example,
- Facebook knows whose pages you have been visiting. Currently they
allow "anonymous" browsing. But they could make the information
available directly, either through a "who has viewed you" widget that
the other party can use, or else by some indirect means. For example,
if B is visiting A's page regularly, then Facebook might increase the
rate at which B's wall posts are propagated to A.
- Facebook has all your message history (which many people use
instead of email). Not only do they have the messages, but they have
lists of who you write to regularly.
- Facebook knows a lot about your location. They know your approximate location through IP geolocation if you're connecting from home, work or a cafe
- If you use the iPhone Facebook app then they know your location pretty much exactly, and pretty much minute by minute.
Discuss the ethical obligations of
Facebook (and similar commercial services) to its user community
regarding privacy for this Facebook-generated data, versus
user-posted data. For the latter, Facebook supplies privacy options but
has claimed in the past that if those options do not meet your needs
then you can always refuse to share information simply by quitting
Facebook entirely. Is that approach reasonable for Facebook-generated
data? Is there any other obligation? After all, you may not even be
aware Facebook has the
information about your browsing history and your location. Should such
information be covered by "opt-in" rules, or is "opt-out" sufficient
(ie Facebook does what they want unless you explicitly deny access)?
Note that, when it comes to your profile picture, your schools, and
other basic identifying information (and perhaps other user-posted data
as well), Facebook's interest in encouraging you to make this
information widely shared (or even world-viewable) is basically that it
makes it easier for others to find you, thus increasing the number of
user interactions and thus the overall Facebook usage and thus
potential advertising revenue. While information visible to everyone
would thus be visible to
advertisers too, which might be one of Facebook's goals, Facebook
is also interested in growing its service, and to that end it is
important
to make publicly available as much information as possible that allows
people to find friends.
For user-posted data, Facebook
frequently changes the fine print of their privacy policies. In major
cases, they have sometimes required users to click "ok" in order to
continue using Facebook (or at least "ok, I have understood the policy
and will remove any information I do not want shared"). For the above Facebook-generated
data, can the same rules work, or do any special rules apply? Should
users be given an option to delete or otherwise manage the
information? How much explanation does Facebook owe its users as to the existence
of this data? Is Facebook within its rights to say "take it or leave
it; sharing this is required for continued use of Facebook"? Some
Facebook-generated data may continue to exist even after you have
deleted your account; may Facebook still use it? Does Facebook have an
"ownership" interest in it?
Finally, should the iPhone Facebook app (and similar) be subject to the
same rules as the website, or should there be special rules, given the
fine-grained nature of the GPS location information provided?
When making ethical arguments in a business context, it is often
helpful to recognize that ethical behavior can be closely tied to a
business's own long-term self-interest. That is, Facebook would wish to
avoid alienating its user base, and also would wish to avoid unforeseen
liabilities.
As an example of past Facebook privacy issues, one of Facebook's earliest controversial decisions
was the creation of "mini-feeds", a mechanism that notifies you
whenever any of your Friends updates his or her page. Today, this
feature is widely accepted as reasonable, but see the analysis in the
sidebar on page 55 of Baase.
Your paper will be graded primarily on organization
(that is, how you lay out your sequence of paragraphs), focus (that is,
whether you stick to the topic), and the nature and completeness of
your arguments. While you may consider privacy for conventional
user-posted data by way of comparison, to some degree your primary
focus should be on the "Facebook-generated" data.
It is essential
that all material from other sources be enclosed in quotation marks (or
set off as a block quote), and preferably with a citation to the
original source as well.
Expected length: 3-5 pages (600+ words)