Case Study: Facebook Privacy- There is no Privacy

Q1: Perform an ethical analysis of Facebook. What is the ethical dilemma

presented by this case?
 The ethical dilemma in the case surrounds privacy of personal information. It’s a known
fact that Facebook uses personal information in order to cater personal ads and promotions
for its users. This is the future of social media marketing, but it can also be seen as an
ethical dilemma for user privacy. What is definitely unethical is the fact Facebook does not
give its users freedom to see how their information is being used. Taking away
transparency from its users tarnishes the company’s reputation.
 The people or stakeholders involved in the ethical analysis of Facebook including the
advertisers, data collection agencies, Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC),
individual users who uses Facebook and obviously Facebook itself.
 Facebook functions by collecting incredible amount of personal data from its users. By
using all the personal data, Facebook is able to track the online activity of the users and so
they could target their preferences and give them what they want to see online and it
improve the quality and the accuracy of the advertisement to the correct group of persons.
 However, Facebook gathers personal information about users, both with and without their
consent, which can be used against them in other ways. Facebook’s goal is to get the users
to share their information and data about what they like and what they do not like, so from
the online activities of the users, they can serve more relevant advertisements and it helps
the advertisers a lot, and at the same time Facebook can charge higher fees to the
advertisers.
 Collecting personal data can be positive when it is providing advantages for the users to
save time on searching for what they want as the suitable advertisement will popped up
before they search for it, it can be one of the most effective way to build up the reputation
of the business and attract more users. Nevertheless, collecting data without consent can
be bad as well and it may bring trouble to the business if the user decided to sue them.

Q2: What is the relationship of privacy to Facebook’s business model?

The lesser the privacy Facebook offers to the users, the more valuable it business model is. This is
due to Facebook is highly depending on collecting the personal data to gain their reputation and
build up the business and make it stronger with the huge information base. By providing more
privacy settings to its users, the less data Facebook can collect, stores and provides to the
advertisers. It makes Facebook’s business model less valuable because the advertisements are not
able to be spread out accurately by targeting the user’s preferences.
The Facebook parties need to comply with the policies stated by the Facebook management team.
These policies include Claims of Intellectual Property Infringement, Platform Policies, Privacy
Policy, Promotion Guidelines, Payment Terms, Claims of Copyright Infringement, and others to
provide the Facebook users with the window of rights and the business with the window of
opportunity to use the information and share the right information with right customers. This helps
maintain the relationship with the Facebook users and those services providers who interact with
Facebook.

Q2: Describe the weaknesses of Facebook’s privacy policies and features. What
management, organization, and technology factors have contributed to those
weaknesses?
Weaknesses of Facebook’s privacy policies and features

 The weakness behind Facebook’s privacy issues was a lack of communication between
Facebook and its users. Users were not aware that they were able to control what
information was being shared with external parties.
 The news feed features allow the Facebook users to learn who the other users are friends
with and what do they do- activities- on the Facebook pages. The actions performed on the
Facebook are logged.
 The Facebook keeps the copy of the users account and the copy is never deleted even when
the account is deactivated or deleted. The user’s data remains with the Facebook even after
users do not wish to have a relationship with it.
Factors of management, organization, and technology factors have contributed to Facebook
weaknesses
Management
 The management of Facebook thinks that the users have the information regarding their
data being sharing and the Facebook has the consent to share it with other parties. The
Facebook has given the feature of opt-in to disable the sharing feature completely but it is
always the users who are not always aware of the change sin policies.
Organization
 Facebook’s value is their ability to get the personal information of its users and how it
helps to improve the advertisement by the advertisers and so they could attract more
advertisers. Facebook should take action to solve the privacy issues and concerns by the
users instead of avoiding the problem although by providing more privacy settings may
affect their business.
Technology
 Facebook has plenty experiences when it comes to privacy violations and missteps that
raise doubts about whether it should be responsible for the personal data of hundreds of
millions of people. Facebook has settled lawsuits with the Federal Trade Commission in
which they were barred from misrepresenting the privacy or security of its users’ personal
information. Besides, it has also come under fire for collecting information about users
who are not even logged into Facebook or have accounts with the company. Moreover, it
 keeps track of activity on other sites that have “Like” buttons or “recommendations”
widgets, and records the time of your visit and your IP address when you visit a site,
regardless of whether or not you click on them.

Q4: Will Facebook be able to have a successful business model without invading
privacy? Explain your answer. Are there any measures Facebook could take to
make this possible?
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.
Recommendations:
Facebook could try to 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. Facebook can also allow users to view all the data it collects on them and
allow users to delete information that the users deem necessary. 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.