“172. Part One Orsarizations; Management, and the Networked Enterprise Facebook Privacy: There Is No Privacy LE \ ver the course of less than a decade, Facebook has morphed from a small, niche networking site for mostly Ivy ‘League college students into a publicly spany with a market worth of $148 bil- 2014 (up from $59 billion in 2013), Facebook thot itis free to join and always will be, so. .e money coming from to service | billion. ribers? Just like its fellow tech titan s iapaton of han: | Facebook accounts. in 2013, are using your online activity to develop a frighteningly aecurate picture of your life Facebook's goal is to serve advertisements that are more relevant to you than anywhere else on ‘the Web, but the personal information they gather about you both with and without your consent can also be used against you in other ways. Facebook has a diverse array of compelling and useful features. Facebook's partnership with the Department of Labor helps to corinect job seekers and employers; Facebook has helped fainilies find ‘ost pets after natural disasters, such as when tor. nadoes hil the Midwest in 2012; Facebook allows ‘active-duty soldiers to stay in touch with their ~ families; it gives smaller companies a chance to further their e-comierce efforts and larger compa “nies a chance to solidify their brands; and, perhaps ‘amost obviously, Facebook allows you to more eas- ‘ly keep in touch with your friends, These are the. ‘easons Why so many people are on Facebook However, Facebook's goal is to get its users to "share as much data as possible, because the more "Facebook knows about you, the more accurately it can serve relevant advertisements to you, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg often says that ‘people want the world to be more open and con- nected. It's unclear whether that is truly the case, svainly trae that Facebook wants the world to be. nore open antl comected, because it tands to make more money in that world. Critics chook are concerned that the existence ony ‘of personal data of the size that sk has amassed requires protections and far beyond those that ranting to make more money is not tthe company has a checkered and missteps thal raiseChapter 4 Ethical and Social Issues in Information Systems 173 ‘challenge information in credit reparts, but you notices or typical bank credit card agreements, cant even see what data Facebook has gathered which are notoriously dense. Next time you visit [stout you Tet alono tyto change tts ifferent___Freebook, lick on Fivacy Settings and see ifyou can understard your options, » Facebook's value and growth potential is deter- 0 mined by how effectively it can leverage the per- n social networks is being used by outside enti: _sonal data it aggregated about its users to altract 5 to assess your interests, and behavior, and advertisers. Facebook also stands to gain from man- pitch you an ad based on this knowledge, aging and avoiding the privacy concerns raised by aw enforcement agencies use social networks ‘ts users and government regulators. For Facebool {0 gather evidence on tax evaders, and other uusors that value the privacy of their personal data, “eaiminals, employers use social networks to make this situation appears grim, But there are some jions about prospective candidates for jobs; signs that Faceiook might become more respon- [and data aggregators are gathering as much infor: sible with its data collection processes, whether mation about you as ay can sell te the 2 _ by its own volition or because it is forced to do 30, As a publicly traded company, Facebook now invites more scrutiny from investors and regulators “heranse, anlike in the past, their balance sheets, jlien Americans on Facebook everyday, i million are willinaly sharing informa: __assets, and financial reporting documents are read- jon that could be used against them :n some way. ‘ly available. : ludeé plans to travel on a particular day, In August 2012, Facebook sottled a lawsuit, ch burglars could use io time robberies, or ow vith the FIC in | which ‘they wete barred from’ Juiking a page about a particular health condition or misrepresenting the privacy or security of users eatment, which insurers could use to deny Cover __personal information, Tacebook was charged with milion users have never adjusted deceiving its users by telling them they could xy contvols, which allow friends ‘keep their information on Facebook private, but “using Facebook applications t to unwittingly transfer then repeatedly allowing it to be shaved and made ui aia to athird party without y our nove _ public. Facebook agreed to obtain user consent "before making any change to that user's privacy _ preferences, and to submit-to bianmual privacy audits by an independent firma for the next 20 _yeats, Privacy advocate groups like the Electronic. _ Privacy Information Center (EPIC) want Facebook fo restore ils more robust privacy settings from 2009, as well as to offer complete access to all data "it keeps about its users. Faoebook has also come. “under fire froun BPIC fox collecting information n, and 72 percent want the ability to opt out 78 who ate not even logged into Facebook rans non ieebook Keeps trac of activity on other sites that ke buttons or recommendations) widgets, While US, Facebook users have little recourse to. access data that Facebook has collected onthem,174. Part One: Organizations, Management, and the Networked Enterprise get a fill copy of his personal information from Facebook's Dublin office, due to the more stringent consumer privacy protections in Ireland. The full ‘document was 1,222 pages long and covered three ‘years of activity on the site, including deleted Wall posts and messages with sensitive personal infor- mation and deleted e-mail addresses. In Europe, 40,000 Facebook users have already requested their data, and European law requires that Facebook respond to these requests within 40 days. It isn't just text-based data that Facebook is stock piling, either Facebook is also compiling a biomet- Tic database of unprecedented size. The company stores more than 60 billion photos on its servers ‘and that number grows by 250 million each day. ‘A recent feature launched by Facebook called Tag ‘Suggest scans photographs using facial recognition “technology. When ‘Tag Suggest was launched, it __.Was enabled for many users without opting in, This database has value to law enforcement and other organizations looking to compile profiles of users for use in advertising, EPIC also lias demanded that Facebook stop orcating facial recognition profiles ‘without user consent In 2012, as part of the settlement of another class-action lawsuit, Facebook agreed to allow users to opt in to its Sponsored Stories service, ‘which serves advertisements in the user's News Feed that highlight products and businesses that your Facebook friends are using. This, allowed users to control which of their actions ‘on Facebook generate advertisements that their friends will see. Sponsored Stories are one of the most effective forms of advertising on Facebook because they don’t seem like advertisements _at all to most users. Facebook had previously “argued that users were giving “implied consent” ‘every time they clicked a Like button on a page. ie entirely, after many lawsuits, attempted télements, and criticism from privacy: groups, the FIG, and annoyed patents whose children's a were es used throughout Facebook. children liked a product on Facebook, their photos: ‘were used to promote the product not just to their friends, but to everyone on Facebook who poten- tially might be interested. The legal settlement only enraged privacy advocates and Congress, leading to Facebook's abandonment of Sponsored Stories. 4 ‘While Facebook has shut down one of its more egregious privacy-invading features, the com. pany's Data Use policies make it very clear that, as a condition of using the service, users grant the company wide latitude in using their infor- ‘mation in advertising, This includes a person's name, photo, comments, and othier information, Facebook's existing policies make clear that use: ave required to grant the company wide permis- sion to use their personal information in adver- tising as a condition of using the service. This {includes ‘social advertising’ where your personal information is broadcast to your friends, and indeed, the entire Facebook service if the com- any sees ft, While users can limit some uses, an advanced degree in Facebook data features is required. Despite consumer protests and government scru- tiny, Facebook continues to challenge its customers’ sense of control ovet their personal information. In January 2013, Facebook launched its Graph Search ‘progratn, a social network search engine intended to rival Google but based on a totally’ different approach. Rather than scour the Internet for infor: > mation related to a user's search term, Graph Search responds to user queties with information produced by all Facebook users on their personal pages, and their friends personal pages. For stance, Graph Search, without consent of the user, allows any ‘Facebook user to type in your name, and click the - link *Photos of," syhich appeats-underneath the “search bar. Complete strangers can find pictures - of you. The person searched may not be ableto. “control who sees personal photos it depends. on.