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FACEBOOK: IT’S ABOUT THE MONEYhttp://www.facebook.com

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Group 13

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Rusli bin Abdullah

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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.

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Facebook Features

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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.

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1) Perform an ethical analysis of Facebook, what is the ethical dilemma presented by this case?

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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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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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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.

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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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2.What is the relationship of privacy to Facebook business model?

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2.What is the relationship of privacy to Facebook business model?

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Than

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