Reading and Activity #5

I am a private person in general. Whether good or bad, I do not share my activities or issues with other people. I am not vocal about my private life unless someone asks, and even then, I do not fully divulge all information. To me, privacy is an important concern especially with technology. On Facebook, people are always sharing their day step-by-step. I often wonder why Facebook users do this, because first of all, no one cares that you woke up at 8am to clean the kitchen and secondly it is dangerous to give anybody any information about yourself. For example, like Facebook article states it can let burglars know when to break into your home. For me, privacy is one of my main concerns, and I will continue to be cautious about revealing too much about my life to acquaintances as well as the general public.

The article, “Facebook & Your Privacy,” presents positive and negative aspects to Facebook. The consumer report mentions that while “Facebook makes it so easy to keep up with friends, family, and colleagues, discover great content, connect to causes, share photos, drum up business, and learn about fun events,” the social networking site gathers and distributes personal information to advertisers and other third party companies. Facebook is able to collect personal data due to many factors in and out of user control. One way Facebook is able to gather information easily is because many Facebook users share their daily plans on the site. Too much sharing can cause other problems as well because employers, insurance companies, and other groups are constantly examining Facebook pages. Another way privacy is threatened occurs when people “like” Facebook pages dealing with medical issues, world causes, etc. and other websites. Facebook is able to immediately track users’ likes. Additional reasons for privacy loss occur because many users do not set their privacy controls and some do not know privacy settings exist.  The article also explains that even if you set privacy controls, friends using Facbook apps unknowingly release your information to third party companies. Interestingly, compared to Europe, U.S. privacy laws are not effective and they do not protect users’ privacy. Because the laws are weak, users are granted minimal federal rights to have any sort of control over personal information being collected. The article discusses another controversy of Facebook: Tag Suggest. Tag Suggest applies facial recognition to tag people automatically in photos. Evidently, the program is opt-out, meaning that users who do not want to be involved must go into settings and opt-out of the program.       Many organizations like the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) are trying to hold Facebook more accountable in sharing information the company has on users.