It is interesting to read just how influential Facebook is. Although it is not the most visited website, it is up there as one of the most popular websites online and more importantly one of the websites that users care about the most. Especially on a college campus, it would be rare to find a group of students who do not have a page or even who have not checked their page within the last day. The article I found hi-lights how many people use the social website and how all of the technology surrounding us has us currently living in a digital country rather than a geopolitical one. Because of those thoughts the article then goes on to argue that because this website is so powerful and influential the users of the site should have some sort of protection.
I have a Facebook page and I agree with this article. I would not want my account to be hacked, or publicly exposed to those I do not want seeing it. The article discusses privacy settings and how a "master password" could allow employees to access pretty much anything on your page. Granted, Facebook is a free site and users voluntarily sign up- but I agree with the article that if a user marks something as private it should stay that way.
I can see the pros to strangers being able to access information on the Facebook website, though. At my internship this summer I worked a little bit in advertising and social media and I learned how valuable the information posted on Facebook can be. Rather than putting an ad out into the internet and hoping that someone surfing will notice it and the ad will apply to them, Facebook "likes and interests" help a company directly target an audience. By accessing that information a market can be successful for both buyers and sellers.
This article was a valuable find to me because it applies directly to my life and brings up interesting points on online privacy as well as how digital our world is becoming. I agree with the article, protection should be given to the users, but a compromise should be found for the benefit of advertisers. I feel online issues are ones that are going to need to be around for quite some time, but hopefully they will be properly addressed so that online sites (such as Facebook) are able to grow and thrive into a large part of our future.
No comments:
Post a Comment