Ari Melber in his article, “About Facebook” has discussed about the journey of Facebook, from its initial conflict to being the fifth most popular site in the country, ranking just behind YouTube. However, he has also pointed out about the violation of digital privacy Facebook members on the site.
There are about 58 million active members on Facebook, and it draws 250,000 new members every day and that makes it one of the largest and most popular social networking sites in America and the world. Both young and old users load personal information such as their cellphone number, emails, private pictures, digital labels, etc.
However, most of the Internet users are unaware of the extent of vulnerability they are having on the site. Every day 2.7 billion photos are uploaded and almost 2.2 billion digital labels are posted on Facebook. According to the privacy policy, all the information shared by the users on this site is the property of Facebook. Photos uploaded on the site can be used for advertising bulletins. Those who have terminated their membership still have their photos and digital labels posted online.
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Though Facebook offers some digital privacy settings, which allow members to hide or limit some information sharing but it has been found that most of the users choose the default setting. One of the studies conducted by Carnegie Mellon have found that students on Facebook consider privacy policy very important, “ranking above terrorism.” Though students showed their concern about the privacy policy, still 40 per cent students posted their class schedule on Facebook and 47 percent of them provided their political views on the site.
Many Facebook members think that in the era of top-down surveillance, you are tracked everywhere whether on streets, ATM or other places. In addition, consumers have allowed companies to collect loads of data – so what’s wrong sharing private data on the web?
With time, Facebook is offering new features that not only make it easier for users to search other users; these features are making private information more vulnerable on the site. One of the best examples of such features is the “public search” option on Facebook.
In spite of some drawbacks, social networking sites are becoming popular each day because they disseminate information effectively. It is easier to post on a network than to email and there are more fun attached with such sites. But one needs to understand the privacy factors while enjoying on the site.