Broadband feature

Facebook: The privacy debate

Have we sold our souls to a social network?

Wednesday 14 December, 2011

By Anthony Hill

Are concerned Facebook users just paranoid, or is our privacy actually being violated? What does Facebook do with our information? Is it really as sinister as some want us to believe? Let’s find out...

Most of us know how Facebook came about. Its humble beginnings in a student’s bedroom are very well documented, not to mention immortalised on film. What people are less sure of is where the social network is going. In the space of a few years it’s revolutionised how web users live their lives. What it might go on to achieve really is anyone’s guess.

But, if there’s one man in the know it has to be Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old billionaire who launched a primitive version of Facebook in February 2004. Today he remains as CEO, though what began as a closed network for his Harvard University pals is now a global super-power with an annual turnover close to $4billion (£2.5billion).

How to make friends and influence people

Zuckerberg certainly knows how to make friends. Facebook has more than 800 million active users, with more than half logging in daily. This level of popularity means huge amounts of content are shared every second. In fact, two billion posts receive a “Like” or comment each day, and 250 million photos are uploaded in a typical 24-hour period.

And yet it’s data exchange of a different kind that keeps landing Facebook in hot water. Our privacy - and whether social networks respect it - comes up for discussion time and time again. When you sign-up for a Facebook account, you’ll be asked what you want to be made public. But if the accusations are true, our preferences are often ignored.

In a recent interview on American talk show Charlie Rose, a defiant Zuckerberg said Facebook should not be singled out. He argued it’s demonised because it extracts information from members in an upfront and open manner. Details including age, gender and sexuality form part of every user’s profile at even the most basic level of membership.

Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not after you

Photo by deneyterrio

But according to the Facebook boss, it’s actually other sites we should be wary of. “If you look at companies - whether it’s Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft - that have search engines and ad networks, they also have a huge amount of information about you. It’s just that they’re collecting it behind your back,” he said in the interview.

Weeks later, Facebook agreed to settle charges from the US Federal Trade Commission that it deceived users by saying their details would be kept private, but then later sharing them with third-party organisations. Zuckerberg admitted “a bunch of mistakes” had been made, but assured us things have improved.

Over the years, privacy fears have fuelled a number of high-profile controversies, which, as Zuckerberg argues, “overshadow the good work” that Facebook has done - and he may have a valid point. Facebook has completely redefined what it means to socialise, bringing people closer together and providing an unrivalled platform for sharing virtually anything.

Food processors are great!

Let’s not forget, though, this is a free service which anyone with an email account can join. Unsurprisingly, it takes some serious funding, with millions spent on data centres alone. So how can Facebook make enough money to keep growing? Introducing subscription fees would likely have a catastrophic impact - half the world would either take to the streets in protest, or more likely migrate to another free social network.

So, instead they do it through advertising - and an advertiser will pay considerably more when they know who it is they’re speaking to. Information about us, from our age and gender to which webpages we view and which products we like, is incredibly valuable to Facebook and its commercial partners.

It’s easy to imagine how our details allow ads to be targeted for greater effectiveness. Take a British retailer of designer wedding dresses. With a Facebook user’s information they can specifically target a female UK audience, between 18 and 35 let’s say, whose relationship status is “Engaged”.

Photo by GOIABA (Goiabarea).

This is one example of how our Facebook profiles are harnessed by firms who want to sell us something. Next, imagine Burger King wants an offer to attract repeat customers rather than one-off bargain hunters. Facebook users who “Like” the Burger King page, or name “fast food” in their interests, will no doubt provide more bang for the marketing buck.

But legislation is being tightened all the time. Social networks are already constrained by exactly the same data protection and privacy laws as organisations in every other sector. As Zuckerberg admits, some mistakes have been made - but transparency is improving and we’re more aware than ever of how and when our details are being used.

There is certainly one reason to be wary of trusting Facebook, as it’s fallen foul of privacy rules in the past. Users who were told their details would remain a secret were later informed this was not the case. But more recently Facebook - as well as other major sites - have shown increasing commitment to user’ privacy.

“Facebook has always been committed to being transparent about the information you have stored with us - and we have led the internet in building tools to give people the ability to see and control what they share,” said Zuckerberg in a recent blog post. But then Facebook also encourages the sharing of location-based data, with users “checking in” to restaurants, bars and favourite places across the world. Fears of an Orwellian dystopia seem gone, with people now more than happy with an online world keeping tabs on them day and night.

While Zuckerberg is keen to assure us that Facebook works hard to preserve our privacy, it also allows third-party developers to make their own apps - adding more potential threats. Interestingly, just this week, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have demonstrated tools which alert members to how Facebook applications plan to use their data. Heng Xu, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, said people are often unaware that third-party apps can override a user’s privacy settings. “The only way to find out how the information is going to be used is to go to each app's website and review the terms of use. And many people won't do that,” she said.

The lost art of keeping a secret

However, it’s important to remember that our Facebook friends and the social networks themselves only have access to information we choose to make public. When all is said and done, Facebook is a free service for anyone to enjoy as they please. So, in many ways, you could ask, “how dare anyone complain?” when the information they hand over is used for the advertising that pays Facebook’s rent. If you disagree with any of the policies, there’s a very straightforward solution.

It may feel sometimes that we wouldn’t survive without it, yet most of us remember a less-connected world that was thriving long before Facebook arrived. Websites like the Suicide Machine offer to liberate us from social media, deleting all of our profiles in the blink of an eye. So it couldn’t be easier to show Mark Zuckerberg you disapprove of what Facebook is doing.

But would you be willing or brave enough to jump?

Facebook map image by Paul Butler.