People’s privacy is being challenged every single day with the dramatic advances in technologies. Simson Garfinkel has brought up this fight for privacy stating, “New technology has brought extraordinary benefits to society, but it also has placed all of us in an electronic fishbowl in which our habits, tastes, and activities are watched and recorded” (pg. 323). Facebook’s privacy settings are changing every single day but, as a user of Facebook this does not mean we are safe from strangers and unwanted people from viewing the content we put out to the public. According to Forbes contributor, Chunka Mui, Facebook’s privacy problems are expanding and larger risks are in the future for Facebook users.
The article written by Chunka Mui titled, “Facebook’s Privacy Issues Are Even Deeper than We Knew,” is about the issues regarding the actually privacy users have. Facebook has become a worldwide photo identification base according to the researchers at Carnegie Mellon University. CMU researchers did a test using Facebook’s public profiles and an off the shelf facial recognition software to see if they could match people to their profiles on Facebook and Match.com. In the results, the information that came back was a resounding: YES. People can identify strangers with generally anonymous profiles on Match.com with only their Facebook profiles. Another problem with Facebook is that it has started using its own facial identifier sparingly on certain test computers, where it automatically tags people in pictures. This new technology has authorities of Germany believing that this crosses its privacy laws.
The research done by Carnegie Mellon University on Facebook and Facebook’s new technology is starting to breach privacy laws of its users. Simson Garfinkel writes about the importance of individual privacy stating, “Privacy isn’t just about hiding things. It’s about self-possession, autonomy, and integrity” (pg.323). I do not want people to be able to buy any type of facial recognition software off the market and be able to find a picture of me and be able to pull up my Facebook profile. Facebook’s new facial recognizer also crosses the line because how does this technology have the ability to pick out who I am in a picture full of my friends. I have a hard time believing that this software has the ability to operate without someone working behind the scenes tagging me in pictures without ever meeting me. Chunka Mui puts it simply, “Facebook, to my mind, has tarnished its brand through its insensitivity, as evidenced by its repeatedly expanding what information is public by default.” In my opinion Facebook is becoming too much of a public place where my information is floating around so that creepers everywhere can follow me without me ever knowing.
Jon, the quotation that you pulled from Simson Garfinkel's article is really important. It's true that new technologies like Facebook, Twitter, Google, etc.. have impacted our lives and interaction with media in a multitude of positive ways. However, we do have to remain cautious and remember that these companies all began as start-ups. They were "grassroots" initiatives that, as they achieved success, have had to deal with the massive amounts of traffic they get on their site by developing new technologies to become more efficient. Your Facebook example hits the nail on the head. It's another example of how a company functioning on the global scale has had to adapt in ways that violate the privacy of the customers that made their company successful in the first place.
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