A lawsuit was filed against Facebook, a social networking website, in August 2008 for violating federal privacy laws with their Beacon advertising program. Finally, two years later, a settlement has been reached. Facebook has agreed to pay $9.5 million of grant money to fund online privacy projects and set up a privacy foundation. They have organized three well known, respected board members to decide which privacy projects will receive money. The lawsuit originated from Facebook sharing private information about their users with Beacon affiliates like Blockbuster and Overstock.com. These affiliates posted specific personal information about customers on the internet after Facebook shared their information with them. This violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Video Privacy Protection Act.
This lawsuit presents the ethical dilemma of the downside of technology. It conveys the risk of privacy invasion from following IP addresses and people using cookies or web beacons to track whose reading what, from where, and when. I think Facebook’s proposal and final settlement is a great way to protect people’s information and avoid a dilemma like this again once these projects develop. In this case, the actually company was sharing their own information of their users with other trusted companies. If Facebook shared their information anyone who wanted to use the data wrongly and continue to share it with others, not only Facebook users’ privacy would be at stake but their safety as well. A stranger could find out where you are, your friends, and certain aspects of your life through your conversations with others. Facebook’s grant to help protect people from this benefits everyone. Yet, a big argument against the settlement was made arguing that the settlement did nothing to indemnify the already exposed victims of Facebook’s violation. I do not think there is much that can be done for these victims because once information is on the web it is out there for all to see. Personally, I understand how web beacons help companies with efficiency, effectiveness, and web metrics to realize trends and traffic patterns to help the company excel. I do not agree with them continuing to follow IP addresses after a user leaves the company’s site. Yet, the fact that there is so much information out there on everyone gives us some privacy because it is hard to track one specific person, but it’s not impossible.
Jaikumar Vijayan, Computerworld. March 18th 2010.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/03/18/urnidgns852573C400693880002576EB0003C03C.DTL
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I agree with Jessica in that Facebook had the correct response to the lawsuit and offered a settlement that would make efforts to ameliorate the issue. Facebook should not be allowed to share private information with Beacon in exchange for some sort of contract. However, once they were sued, I think the appropriate actions were taken. For example, the 9.5 million dollar donation to fund online privacy projects. It is important to be able to trust the sites where the public is posting personal information.
ReplyDeleteMany other companies have faced attacks on personal information that new privacy controls could prevent from occuring. For example, a few yers ago, TJMaxx faced a similar crisis. Thousands of customer's credit information was stolen from their databases. This lead to identity theft and credit fraud. TJMaxx had a lot to overcome and needed to make changes in the privacy protection programs like Facebook. It is important for all people to be aware that once something is posted online, it is possible that anyone can gain access. Companies need to take appropriate action to avoid this.