Mohammad, Lady Farwaniyyah M.

MST 112

1. What is this data privacy scandal all about?

Facebook is a huge social network and one of the most used social media
platform. One of its conditions to register an account is to fill up necessary information
that may need data that are related to the people personally. The scandal that broke
out was about something related to the politics. Cambridge Analytica is a company that
offers services to business and political parties to “change audience behavior”. they
claim to manipulate the netizens through accessing the data they provided online which
the Facebook company failed to protect that caused about 87 million users. However,
the British firm defended themselves that they did not use any Facebook data in the US
Presidential elections. This issue resulted to Facebook deleting accounts and pages that
may have been linked to Russian-sponsored internet unit.

2. How does this data privacy scandal relate to Heidegger’s notion of revealing of
modern technology as challenging forth?
Technology today is a form of disclosing that challenges nature, such that the
technologically altered state of things is always a scenario in which nature and objects
wait, ready for human use. In relation to the privacy data scandal, Facebook is seen as
an entertainment media and a means of communication however, we have learned
that it has a deeper purpose to such companies like Cambridge Analytica. The personal
data provided allowed people to register an account, little did they know, these
information are reserved for another purpose. An example I remember, this recent
election, there was an issue in which accounts automatically liked pages that are
politically biased.

3. How are Facebook users enframed in this particular data privacy scandal?
Facebook users were enframed by providing their personal data which are
automatically connected and saved to the account and the whole Facebook app. It
means that anyone in Facebook can find you and look for you unless you manually block
them. This also means that the app has stored all your information and is ready to be
served.

4. How do you think Facebook can be used in a way that is more consistent with
Heidegger’s idea of poiesis or bringing forth of technology?
Facebook is now one of the mainstream medias whereas anything controversial
can easily be disseminated in just a click. Facebook app is already an entertainment
media and issues that circulate around it are what they call teas are what fuels it up. It
has become something that is literally a way revealing or exposing someone. For
example, a victim buyer was scammed by a bogus seller, then the scammed buyer
decided to post the bogus seller online, and then the comments are filled with people
who were also scammed previously by the same bogus seller. The application was used
as something that is beyond entertainment, it also became a platform of truth,
awareness, and even call outs.

5. How can the Heideggerian notion of “questioning guide Facebook users toward a
beneficial use of social media?
The current debate of technology has a key flaw in that it focuses on what we
term technology in its everyday sense while ignoring technology in its core. It makes no
difference whether we accept or criticize technology in this situation since we are all
imprisoned by our misunderstanding of what technology is. "Technology [in its everyday
sense] is not similar to the essence of technology," Heidegger writes. To avoid
misconceptions and rationally relate to technology, we must first identify its essential
meaning, which can only be done by knowing its essence.