Less Privacy on Facebook

Our article is called The High Price of Facebook and is written by Daniel Lyons. The engineers of facebook are changing the rules. There are certain privacy settings that are being changed. These include where you work, what music you like, and where you go to school. These all go to the public by default. It used to be everything was private until you set your profile to be otherwise, now the privacy is being violated. Some things cannot even be put on private. For example, if you insist on making your hometown, interests and friends names private, you cannot put them at all.
Facebook’s vice president of communications and public policy says “The whole kerfuffle is a misunderstanding” He says they are just trying to make things easier and improve the service it provides to users. They also believe if people don’t share information they have a “less satisfying experience.”
Critics believe the whole privacy “misunderstanding” is just about Facebook wanting to make more money. The original business model of selling ads and putting them on the sides of the pages was insufficient. However, Facebook denies that the changes were for financial benefits.
Facebook also believes that some people like the fact that facebook is more open. However, some people do not agree with these changes at all. For example, in April, three senators told Facebook to change their privacy policy. They also urged the Federal Trade Commission to put forth a series of guidelines for social networking sites like Facebook. Also, a interest group involving online-privacy filed a complaint to the FTC stating "unfair and deceptive trade practices."
In the end, the privacy issue shouldn’t hurt facebook at all. They have over 400 million members, and most are oblivious the issues of privacy. Facebook will be fine with the small amount of upset people, and will most likely be considered this years Microsoft.
This article is related to what we learned in government because it deals with the unremunerated right of privacy. It also involves the roles interest groups can have on company’s and policy making. Also that senators can influence the way online companies can work. However privacy is the largest part of this article. People have the right to privacy by the ninth, fourth, first, and many more amendments.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/signalnoiseart/3112854245/

Post by: M.Laycock and S.Romell