Question

QUESTION 6: Case Study II [10 Marks]

Intellectual Property Rights and Computer Technology “Over the course of less than a decade, Facebook has morphed from a small, niche networking site for mostly Ivy League college students into a publicly traded company with a market worth of $148 billion in 2014 (up from $59 billion in 2013). Facebook boasts that it is free to join and always will be, so where’s the money coming from to service 1 billion worldwide subscribers? Just like its fellow tech titan and rival Google, Facebook’s revenue comes almost entirely from advertising. Facebook does not have a diverse array of hot new gadgets, a countrywide network of brick-and-mortar retail outlets, or a full inventory of software for sale; instead, it has your personal information, and the information of hundreds of millions of others with Facebook accounts. Facebook’s goal is to serve advertisements that are more relevant to you than anywhere else on the Web, but the personal information they gather about you both with and without your consent can also be used against you in other ways. Facebook has a diverse array of compelling and useful features. Facebook allows active-duty soldiers to stay in touch with their families; it gives smaller companies a chance to further their e-commerce efforts and larger companies a chance to solidify their brands; and, perhaps most obviously, Facebook allows you to more easily keep in touch with your friends. These are the reasons why so many people are on Facebook. However, Facebook’s goal is to get its users to share as much data as possible, because the more Facebook knows about you, the more accurately it can serve relevant advertisements to you. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg often says that people want the world to be more open and connected. It’s unclear whether that is truly the case, but it is certainly true that Facebook wants the world to be more open and connected, because it stands to make more money in that world. Critics of Facebook are concerned that the existence of a repository of personal data of the size that Facebook has amassed requires protections and privacy controls that extend far beyond those that Facebook currently offers. Facebook wanting to make more money is not a bad thing, but the company has a checkered past of privacy violations and missteps that raise doubts about whether it should be responsible for the personal data of hundreds of millions of people. There are no laws in the BN201 - Professional Issues of IT - Final Assessment Trimester 2, 2020 Page 7 of 10 United States that give consumers the right to know what data companies like Facebook have compiled. You can challenge information in credit reports, but you can’t even see what data Facebook has gathered about you, let alone try to change it. It’s different in Europe: you can request Facebook to turn over a report of all the information it has about you. More than ever, your every move, every click, on social networks is being used by outside entities to assess your interests, and behavior, and then pitch you an ad based on this knowledge. Law enforcement agencies use social networks to gather evidence on tax evaders, and other criminals; employers use social networks to make decisions about prospective candidates for jobs; and data aggregators are gathering as much information about you as they can sell to the highest bidder. Facebook user’s friends are not notified if information about them is collected by that user’s applications. Many of Facebook’s features and services are enabled by default when they are launched without notifying users. And a study by Siegel+Gale found that Facebook’s privacy policy is more difficult to comprehend than government notices or typical bank credit card agreements, which are notoriously dense. Next time you visit Facebook, click on Privacy Settings, and see if you can understand your options. Facebook’s value and growth potential is determined by how effectively it can leverage the personal data it aggregated about its users to attract advertisers. Facebook also stands to gain from managing and avoiding the privacy concerns raised by its users and government regulators. For Facebook users that value the privacy of their personal data, this situation appears grim. But there are some signs that Facebook might become more responsible with its data collection processes, whether by its own volition or because it is forced to do so. As a publicly traded company, Facebook now invites more scrutiny from investors and regulators because, unlike in the past, their balance sheets, assets, and financial reporting documents are readily available. [Source: Brookshear. ICT Services Management (Custom Edition EBook), Pearson Education Australia, 2015. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.] BN201 - Professional Issues of IT - Final Assessment Trimester 2, 2020 Page 8 of 10 Please answer the following questions:

1. Explain the ethical dilemma presented by the above case. [3 Marks]

2. Describe the weaknesses of Facebook’s privacy policies and features. [3 Marks]

3. Explain the management, organisation, and technology factors that have contributed to those weaknesses? [2 Marks]

4. Will Facebook be able to have a successful business model without invading privacy? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

1.

Actually ethical dilemma means taking credit for other's work. For an example offering a worse product and making profit out of it.

So, coming to the above mentioned case, the ethical dilemma is that

The CEO of facebook Mark Zukerberg offers his services to people all over the world to connect with each other and making new friends and exploring some sort of camera options. But the thing many of the people dont understand is that their information and data is being collected by facebook servers which can be used in any of the way. All the steps we take by using the smartphone using internet is being recorded by facebook and to cover that fault a term has been introduced called as add-experience. This shows us the relevant adds that we search on internet for our basic uses. By offering these services the CEO of facebook is making profit. He is making profit out of people's data from all over the world.

2. Weakness of facebook privacy policies and features

The weakness of facebook privacy policies are that the data is collected without the consent of the user and data aggregators are gathering as much information about you as they can and sell to the highest bidderwhich can be used in any way. Facebook user’s friends are not notified if information about them is collected by that user’s applications. Many of Facebook’s features and services are enabled by default when they are launched without notifying users. This is the worst ever weakness that facebook is going through.

3. Management, Organization and technology that contributed to those weaknesses are:-

• Law enforcement agencies use social networks to gather evidence on tax evaders, and other criminals.
• employers use social networks to make decisions about prospective candidates for jobs.
• data aggregators are gathering as much information about you as they can sell to the highest bidder.

These organizations are doing everything legally and for good purpose. But some of them takes advatage of such methods and go far way to misuse the data collected.

4.

My answer for this question would be NO

Because, Facebook is a social media platform which allows its users to connect with friends and family through a network. Now coming to the reality there came many competitors for facebook offering the same type of resources and with many other cool options too. In both the cases the user's data is collected and stored. So in this case what facebook has to do is to maintain its platform such that it increases its users withouth decreasing. Then it could become a super business model by degrading all other social media platforms. But this happens only when facebook collects user's data and provide more features for a faster and better experience, which happens only when invading privacy policy.

So without invading privacy policy it is very hard for facebook to gain a name a super business model.

Hope I am clear with the explanations provided to you. hope you understand. It would be great if you can provide a positive rating.

And in case of any douts or misunderstanding in the solution provided, please leave a comment, I will be available to clear them as soon as possible. Thank you