Sunday, February 05, 2012

Blog 3: Did I Authorize This?

A 24 year old European law student is accusing Facebook of collecting various data from its users without consent. Max Schrems, who studies at the University of Vienna, has been the voice of this campaign, dating all the way back to 2008. Max alleges that not only does Facebook collect individual data, but they also market that data to other companies such as advertising agencies and retailers. Max is also the creator of the website called "Europe Versus Facebook". This was made in an effort to demand Facebook to release the data that they have collected to various individuals who requested them to do so. After catching the attention of government officials, Facebook finally agreed to release contents to any Facebook users who requested so.

The idea of a social problem in this article is in reference to an individuals right to confidentiality. Facebook is clearly collecting it's user's habits, trends, and locations without notifying the people that they are obtaining it. Privacy concerns are now at a higher level now that consumers of the service are now aware that their information may be given to other 3rd party service providers just by logging onto Facebook. The synopsis of the article creates an awareness to Internet consumers that privacy issues is a global concern. With Facebook being a international phenomenon and having over 850 million users,  people may be skeptical about exactly what type of info they will post on the site.

For more info, check out this article:


Facebook

1 comment:

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