In a ABC (2010) news article, it reports how the popular social networking site, Facebook confessed to breaching privacy of their users through its application. There are applications in Facebook that disseminates information about the user to advertising companies.The information includes not just the Facebook user’s names but also to the extent of the names of the user’s friends and is used create a comprehensive database so that the people can be tracked online.
I believe that every individual who join Facebook or any other online social networking sites, understand that your personal information is required after all that is a nature of social sites. As Taraszow et. al (2010), stated,‘nobody is really forced to join social networking sites (SNS), create a profile and reveal personal information…’.Taraszow et. al (2010) also adds that Facebook encourages users to post their contact details, personal interest, work and educational background. The choice to reveal personal information however lies solely on the individual and that most individuals are aware of the consequences of revealing personal data but are just ignorant.
Benhard et. al ( 2009) reveals how other studies conducted on social networking have found that users who claim they understand and prudent towards privacy prove otherwise with their actual steps taken to protect their personal information. A case in point, that we can explore this duplicity is accepting friend request on Facebook. Benhard et. al (2009)further explains in their study where they found that despite subjects in their studies assert understanding and benefit of privacy settings, they still accept ‘friends’ they barely know and thus have a large group of these ‘friends’ which has access to their personal data. This deliberate ‘ignorance’ can be seen in how despite, permission to access personal information request from application in Facebook, people still just click away in agreement without understanding their action. Jones & Soltren (2005) in their study discovered that 347 out of their 390 respondents had never read Facebook’s Privacy Policy.
Example of permission request from Facebook applications. Source: im.about.com
Another example of a permission request. Source: www.erictric.com
Kirkpatrick (2010) in his report, quote Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook, who said that people nowadays are more comfortable with sharing information with the public and that it is a social norm that has evolved over time. There is some truth in that as it is an innate desire for people to want to connect. However that desire has seemed to render our judgement poor about privacy. Boyd (2008) state that privacy is a right and to exist it should be safeguarded structurally and socially. Ultimately, it is an individual’s responsibility to find out policies of the social sites and their choice to reveal or allow access to their personal information.
Boyd, D 2008, ‘Facebook's Privacy Trainwreck : Exposure, Invasion, and Social Convergence’, Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 13-20.
Taraszow, T, Aristodemou, E, Shitta, G, Laouris, Y & Arsoy, A 2010, Disclosure of personal and contact information by young people in social networking sites: An analysis using Facebook™ profiles as an example’, International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 81-101.
Another example of a permission request. Source: www.erictric.com
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