Reading yet another ‘what knows Facebook about you’ – story just made me wondering…who realy cares about his privacy? And better yet, who truly knows the meaning of privacy, and is this notion of ‘privacy’ still relevant in the 21th century.
But first things first…what is privacy? I don’t want to take the dictionary a tell you a unique definition. For most people privacy starts where personal freedom ends. You want to be in control, and want to share people The stuff you want to share.
Apparently in the digital era there seems to be a double problem, because most people only see this definition as a definition of privacy…but there is a second approach to privacy: who owns your ‘data’? Because what you share on digital platforms isn’t yours anymore most of the time. The platforms own it, like Facebook keeps track of all your data, updates, photo’s,…. Most people don’t know this, few people care about it, but some people make a fuzz out of it. As the video bellow shows, Facebook knows a lot about you…but that doesn’t need to be a problem, what Facebook does with this data is the real question. They use it make personnal one-2-one advertising possible through Facebook Ads, and probably they will sell your date to who is willing to pay.
This seems to disturb some people, although it’s nothing new….who doesn’t own a loyalty Card from a supermarket, shop, …. they do exactly the same. They hold your data to profile you, so they can offer your needs and possible needs in a shop near you.
Who doesn’t own a debit card from a bank (or 2), together with your credit card my bank knows what I’m buying, where I am, what my spending pattern is, … hell they probably know me better than I know myself!
So I truly don’t see the problem in who owns my data in this digital era, since I’m the one who’s giving them my data.
If it comes to sharing, this is a different story. People should be aware that privacy is something you need to work on in the digital world. What you share with who should always be a well-considered decision since this might work against you in one way or another. Look at the people who got fired over a Facebook status update or disturbing online pictures.
The digital and online world is a public world. So don’t do anything online, what you don’t do offline. I’m not running around totally wasted/drunk/stoned/nude/… at work/in the street/…. Do you?
And there is the sharing of information act vs the privacy act if I want to use pictures online which I took myself, I have to make shure everybody who can be recognized on those pictures has given their prior consent to put the picture (with them on it) online….
Ok, out of privacy Reasons I understand this….but in an era in which millions of pictures are made every hour and shared every minute thanks to our amazing mobile devices this seems rather irrelevant. Did you ask permission to everybody who is on your Facebook photo(book)?
Be aware they can sue you for violating their privacy!
This is what I call 18th century thinking! We are in need of an adapted legislation which understands this sharing society, but shows respect to abuses!
Who not uses facial recognition on a big scale to scan all online pictures to alert people their picture is online. So people can determine for themselves if they want to leve it out their or not….and yes abuse should be prosecuted, but with the actual legislation who all are guilty (As charged….regarding privacy)
flatworldbusiness.wordpress.com 
‘So I truly don’t see the problem in who owns my data in this digital era, since I’m the one who’s giving them my data.’
I’ve could not said it any better!
And so yes, they may sell it for marketing purposes. But is that really so wrong? They aren’t really breaking your privacy. It’s not that they would have a closer look in one of the 500 milion accounts…
I agree with Yasmin. I think that it is your own responsibility for what you publish online. It’s like you said in one of your slides – “Privacy is a verb, so work on it”.
Facebook privacy settings has had so much publicity on them that in my opinion it’s all become a bit of a paranoid joke. I know exactly what Facebook knows about me, because I put it there. Anything completely private or confidential I simply won’t upload onto a social network – which is just common sense. Facebook has also made it extremely simple to navigate your way through your privacy settings. And the amount of settings given to the user is always increasing in a way that lets you truly pick and choose who get’s to see what.
People are demanding privacy and Facebook are giving it to them, much better than a lot of other websites out there. If they use some of your information for marketing purposes then it doesn’t make much difference to many other business techniques that have also used your information for marketing purposes without your knowledge. Facebook even seem to be a lot more open about it than others.
One thing is the information that you are sharing with the others: photographs, your ‘likes’, hobbies, interests or some other posts on the wall – you are doing it willingly and on your own, so don’t make fuss about that someone is using it.
The most disturbing aspect for me is scanning your private messages. Probably with so many users there is really small possibility that you will bounce back on you in any negative way, but still – are you feeling comfortable, while knowing that your personal conversation is not that ‘personal’ anymore?
Also I am pretty curious about information they have about me and will request the same as ‘Max’ did, who knows – maybe I will learn something new about myself.
I agree with the comments above.
I also find it a bit funny, that this privacy-conversation has come up just now. Credit-card companies, Loyalty card (as the teacher pointed out) and even electronic buss tickets collect data of us every day. I have a feeling my library knows me better than I do, not to mention my bank!
Sometimes I think that this digital revolution, and progress has come on so fast that people do not have had time to adapt. They don’t have enough information, and once they learn something something else has come up already.
Wish there was more discussion on the “proper use” of social media, like the discussions we’ve had on lessons: it makes you realize that social media, facebook or whatever is not so much different from every day life, same rules apply: don’t do on facebook/twitter/irc.gallery what you wouldn’t do in real life. It’s simple as that.
I also think the same as Mariusz: I’d be very interested to know what information about me is out there.
At present time social networks affects on a lot of lives: someone lefts job, other left girlfriend (boyfriend) and even put in jail when wife does not correctly comment new status what was a provoke to violence. According to I noticed people divide in two groups. First group who all the time make a comment and has a hundreds photos so any person could find his or her profile and find any information. And other kind of person which try to be more safety with personal information and don’t publishing photos and don’t put a lot information. But unfortunately last group of people also cannot feel in safety. Because after last party friends published photos with he or she and anyway each of social network friends know what you were yesterday. So, why some of us like to follow first way? May be due to intention to be more famous or something like that. Moreover, successful people all the time try to hide their personal life. New digital world it is time bomb and we don’t know what we get in conclusion. Our life is becoming easier and at same time more open.
Nowadays most of the people is not really conscious about what sharing everything in a social network means. You don’t really know who is going to keep that picture, and maybe use it for making problems to you. I know it sounds a bit paranoiac, but everybody should realize that when you share something on internet, almost everybody in the world could see it sooner or later.
But of course the solution is not just disconnect and delete all your profiles and data from Internet. Just think for 5 seconds before publishing anything and, if you consider is not a really appropriate stuff, just keep it for yourself. We know is easy just take all the pictures from your last trip and upload them, but almost every time there are some things which should be private.
I agree with the fact that people should become more aware of what they post online. However, most people simply seem to not care. Companies like Facebook and Twitter are getting a lot of complains about their privacy, but I think an equal attention should be given to the fact that people spread their personal on their websites carelessly
I agree with the most comments above. I have no problem with the stuff that’s on facebook or twitter about me, as long as I posted it there, but I see a problem with pics that other people post.
You just get to know about pictures of you, if this someone links you to it. Otherwise you may never get to know it.
Andra, I’think you’re right – I’m responsible for the data I put on facebook or any other social media and that’s ok. But I really dont agree with the way they handle all information… you loose control as soon as you put it there and have no possibility to remove or delete it. Dislike!
For me privacy has a high value, so I am responsible for protecting it. I have to consider first what I will post for the public – not only on Facebook but also everywhere else in the internet. Also my family and my friends have to be aware of sharing all information when linking me on different photos and pages.
A short while ago, the most alarming situation for me was the fact, that Facebook is able to match names of my friends to their photos automatically. This was really the first time when I felt “observed”!
Apart from all the pointless paranoia, I think it’s high time that those responsible for legislation actually bothered with getting their facts straight. There are so many initiatives that are just plain wrong (ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, etc.) and can be directly related to politicians not knowing what they’re talking about.
As for Facebook, I agree with some of the previous posters. It’s up to us to decide what we put up on social networks and what we don’t. However, I don’t see how this is any different than in previous times. You wouldn’t write stuff you didn’t want anybody to know about on your house’s walls or send that information to a newspaper, would you?
And there’s the real problem, some people just confuse social networks with their diaries.
I see the most crucial point about this is that most of the Facebook/Social Media users are not aware of the processing of their data. Especially young people just starting to use Social Media have public shared contents as they do not know better. Very often parents do not even know what their children share online because they are not familiar with Social media at all. From an economical point of view, I believe it is “fair” to use the data collected by platforms up to a certain degree (p.e. individual advertisement), but I believe it is the duty of our society and especially teachers/institutions/etc. to clarify and communicate risks.
Facebook is one of the most popular pages in the world and a very fast communication channel. And in my opinion these are the reasons why this kind of social media platform is so attractive for young people. You can post whatever you like and share pictures with your friends. But you have to be careful what you share. “Whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life” …that’s what Barack Obama said and I fully agree.
What do you think are the top 5 social media risks?
Unfortuantely most persons don’t care about their privacy too much. The time will come many persons have to pay for deletion for things they are not proud in the future. I’m not sure that this development is positive…
Many years ago persons fighted agains the collection of data by the government – a few years later no one really cares about it any more. Both sides are in my opinion too extrem…
By the way…I have noticed something while reading above mentioned comments:
Constantly, we keep talking about young people who have to be aware of Facebook & co and its lack of privacy. But what’s about the older people in the community?
Many parents and surely also grandparents appear on your Facebook list of
friends although they even don’t know how to use this platform best.
Once be logged in and tagged whom ever they know, they often do not have
the necessary overview about what’s close behind these activities.
Are they familiar with the most known facts of privacy in the internet? And if not, who will explain it to them?
For us – the younger generation – it is (hopefully) a usual matter using
such social media carefully but our older relatives are probably not awake in
relation to Facebook’s scenery!!!
Very interesting comments about privacy in social media, however i see the tendency that most of you agree on the fact that everyone using social media (and the internet in general) should become more aware of what he/she posts online, as everyone is responsible for this contents.
Not thinking about what to publish and especially with whom to share that information may result in tremendous disasters…
not too long ago a German girl invited “all her friends” to her 18th birthday via facebook and did not recognize that she made that lines public to the entire social network… finally she ended up having thousands of fans that wanted to join the party…
the girl in this case was only 18 years old and i agree with caro’s point that one major risk is surely that especially new users are not so familiar with how to manage their data right from the beginning – but the problem is what is published once may not be totally deleted later.
or maybe andreas thought is right – that people might get the option to delete data entries but for money. however, who will guarantee you, that the data will really be deleted? and how high will the amount be that you will have to pay? who determins that?
Simone, the introduction of the facial scanner function was a shocking event for me as well. but i think “observed” is not the right expression. i think that is the proof that facebook and its technology know you as well as your friends better than you do. and that kind of scares me…
one new aspect i would like to bring into this discussion is a rather positive one for a few people. in linkedin for example one can choose the option to get job offers fitting to your profile and your CV information that you have entered. for many people this is a great option to observe the labor market und to find good position they very likely would have never come across otherwise.
in this regard i also agree wit caro’s point that of an economic point of view the use of some data might be very beneficial to us – not just harms and threatens us. additionally, receiving personalized adverts, products and service offers on our facebook-page, might add value to some people as they discover new interesting products / services.
open discussion about the pros and cons of social media networks should be increased in my opinion, so that everyone has the necessary information and knows how to handle these platforms without harming the own privacy.
I agree with the most comments above. “For most people privacy starts where personal freedom ends.” Do you know anybody who has still a real privacy in today’s world? I think most of humans share private informations, aware and unknowingly.
Actually, there is an interesting issue in the news in reference to the social network facebook – but it’s in German. The headline of this article (25th January): “In a few days, all facebook user will get the disputed chronicle “Timline” – even if they want or not. With “Timeline” members will get a cute profil. But in reality, the most profit of this ne “face” goes to facebook’s advertisers.”…
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/digital/digitale-lebenschronik-timeline-zwang-fuer-facebook-nutzer-1.1267294
Many people don’t care about their private information in the internet and especially on Facebook. People think Facebook is cool, everybody is part of the network and all people are sharing private information. So what should happen to me? – Facebook is taking advantage of this. “Some might dispute the company’s subsequent record on privacy.” But the community is still very successful: there is a movie about the beginning of Facebook and the company even plans its flotation on the stock market. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16789785
I agree with the fact that people should become more aware of what they post online. You can´t complain about what other people or in this case what facebook does with your data if you give it to them without even spending an thought about what could possibly happen.
It´s a really big problem that people are not aware of what they are doing while giving away data. They seem to begin thinking about such things ata a time when it´s already too late.
For me the best example is giving away data about ones personal bank accout. No one would ever think about giving this data away to strangers, but people don´t seem to have a problem with giving it away to facebook, which is much more severe from my point of view.
To me this is just one more fact that shows, that people are not aware of what they are doing on the internet and especially on facebook.
But I also don´t want to defend facebook for waht they do. It´s ironical that you can write “private messages” on facebook because as we know, to facebook they are as public as everything else you do or post.
You can´t categorize the whole facebook data policy as right or wrong, because people should know what facebook and other social networks and websites do, and therefore be more considered with giving away data.
On the other hand facebook should not be allowed to save your private mails and messages or anything else that a third person involves you in.
I understand most of the written opinions. Information from most of us are already on the Internet. So why should Facebook not collect and transfer these data to companies who have a need for it. As long as there is no direct connection to my person I don’t have a problem with it
Nowadays it is really hard to find the right way how to keep privacy in social networks. Of course, everybody who is a member of such media has to be aware that data related to him are saved somewhere.
But I think we live in a society where people don’t care that much about their personal data. For example the ‘customer or store card’ is a very old idea to collect customer data. I am sure that everybody of us has such a card. And we never thought about what will happen with our data. So, people give their data to companies they store the data and use them in their advantages. In short sharing data is not as new as it seems.
But with social media the type of data changed. It is so common to share moods, feelings, photos and more that it is really difficult to find the best suited way to protect your privacy. I think everyone should make its own definition of privacy but it is also necessary to think about other people.
What I mean is ‘sharing photos’. I know people who share photos with their babies or children on it. In my point of view is this wrong. A baby or a child has not the chance to argue against it but such data are saved forever. They are individuals and they also have the right to decide which data they want to share.
How will the youngsters of the future react when they find a baby-photo of them in?
I think it is very disturbing that they save all our data. But Personally i don’t really care about it because we all aggreed with sharing our information when we joined facebook.
What i also find disturbing is that not many people know that facebook uses their information and that they save it in their database.
Many people share alot of secrets via facebookchat. Even the biggest secrets! But they don’t know that they arent the only persons who know it now.
What i do like about the facebook privacy settings is that you can share your status with who you want. You can devide your friends in groups and put your family or parents in another group. So you can choose with who you share your stories and pictures.
For example a coupple months ago i went to the tattooshop but i didn’t tell my parents. So i just changed my privacysettings so they couldn’t see my pictures/facebookstatus untill i told them.
Real privacy is long gone, the fact that facebook or my bank sells my personal information to advertising companies doesn’t affect me that much. Of course that this is disturbing but I think that this is the price you pay for living on the digital era.
In our capitalist culture, our personal preferances are the most valueable information that I company can have. Based on it they develop, improve or change its gamma of products. I believe that in a not very distant future we won’t receive this general folder at our mailbox anymore but personalized ones.
I will give you an example: A general supermarkt folder with 2 pages full of baby articles is completely inifficient to a single-young man, it is a waste of money and time. So I believe that in the future this kind of advertise will be replaced for a customized one, namely, a young-single person wouldn;t receive advertises of baby products but beer and snacks instead. I am sure that it will be much more effective than what companies nowadays does.
It is very difficult to protect our buy preferances but It is still possible to protect some of your personal information. I see a lot of people sharing too much: the fights that they have with their partners, innapropriated pictures, -not that- funny jokes, racist thoughts an so on. As pointed on the text, this is the kind of information that can and will be used against you at a certain point. Unfortunelly not everyone is aware of that, I try to advise friends when I see they’re going too far, but not all them take it seriously and I think it’s a shame. I hope they wont be caught by their own exposure.
Real privacy is long gone; the fact that Facebook or my bank sells my personal information to advertising companies doesn’t affect me that much. Of course that this is disturbing but I think that this is the price you pay for living on the digital era.
In our capitalist culture, our personal preferences are the most valuable information that I company can have. Based on it they develop, improve or change its gamma of products. I believe that in a not very distant future we won’t receive this general folder at our mailbox anymore but personalized ones.
I will give you an example: A general supermarket folder with 2 pages full of baby articles is completely inefficient to a single-young man; it is a waste of money and time. So I believe that in the future this kind of advertise will be replaced for a customized one, namely, a young-single person wouldn’t receive advertises of baby products but beer and snacks instead. I am sure that it will be much more effective than what companies nowadays does.
It is very difficult to protect our buy preferences but it is still possible to protect some of your personal information. I see a lot of people sharing too much: the fights that they have with their partners, inappropriate pictures, -not that- funny jokes, racist thoughts and so on. As pointed on the text, this is the kind of information that can and will be used against you at a certain point. Unfortunately not everyone is aware of that, I try to advise friends when I see they’re going too far, but not all them take it seriously and I think it’s a shame. I hope they won’t be caught by their own exposure.
privacy now from my point of view and refering to internet, it’s an obsolete term. Didn’t we knew from the beginning that if we upload data to the internet this will remain there? it’s obvious i think. Facebook for example, millions of peple keep uploading photos and data to it so, where is facebook going to keep this?of course it stays stored on the internet, therefore we now that everyone can have an access to it if they want to. Anyway obviously it’s not only facebook, there are loads of pages that ask you for you personal data and we enter it without even reading the terms and conditions of the page, so it shouldn’t be a surprise if someday suddenly all our info has travelled around the world and our photos are everywhere on the internet.