Case Study 1: Facebook(A):Beacon and Privacy

1.    An important consideration for every e-commerce website is to maintain the privacy of its  users. Use of innovative technologies and lack of secure systems makes it easy to obtain personal and confidential information about individuals and organizations. Do you think Facebook was able to deliver the need for privacy for its clientele?

Ans:

            Privacy issue is a main concern of every internet users around the world. Having somebody standing at your back watching and writing everything you do/surf in the internet is a very annoying thing for me and it is the responsibility of every owner/developer of every sites or applications we used in the internet to safeguard and maintain the privacy of its users. As for the question if I trust facebook in keeping my privacy is “No”. Personally, I was a victim of such invading my privacy while one time I was playing an game applications in facebook and broadcast it without my permission to my list of friends. Though there is an option there if that opted me to from broadcasting my activities around facebook. For me, facebook should be by default set it to “disabled state” so that only the users can manually activate it. Or automatically ask the users for confirmation to do it and if the users will not take actions about it, facebook will imply it that the user does not want it for them to broadcast its activity. I know facebook want to implement this mechanism for them to track the activities of their users for business/advertizing purposes but it should be done with the users knowing it.    

2.    Owners of websites should guard against the potential sources of liability which could lead to legal claims against them. Since the Internet knows no boundaries, the owner of a  website could be confronted with legal liability for non-compliance or violation of laws of almost any country. As a Filipino user, in cases of privacy infringement and intellectual property rights violation on the side of Facebook due to system features and implementations, Do you feel comfortable in using the website? What are the ways that you could do to prevent incidents like this to happen? And In cases it happened, What are you going to do to protect your rights?

Ans:

            Amazingly, knowing the flaws and potential invasion of my privacy I still want to use/ or log to facebook sites. Maybe, because I still feel facebook still the most effective way for me to track my friends online and for some personal entertainment purposes. For in case of privacy infringement or intellectual property rights violations I still send a petition to facebook owners together with the support of the facebook community to seriously take my account in consideration in resolving the privacy issues/concern that I petition for preventing further violation and protection of other user’s rights. For the the ways I can suggest in protecting your privacy are (1) simply read carefully the guidelines and privacy agreement in every sites your are visiting. Reads some reviews in third party review panels regarding the sites. Read some users comments. Or (2) internet is a place where we can do anything we want. Be who ever we want. Pretend to be somebody. So, I don’t put my vital information about myself as it is a possible for somebody to know it and use it for some other purposes. So don’t put your vital information publicly. (3) if invasion of privacy happens, petition them and I know for sure it won’t be easy.

3.    Many websites advertise goods or services to customers. The traditional laws of advertising, which apply to ordinary sales, are enacted in the interest of all consumers to prevent deceptive and unfair acts or practices. Explain how effective is Facebook on monetizing their website? Is it ethically correct to monetize certain social networking websites without informing its users about its intensions before the user signs-up to its website?

Ans:

            For me I feel somehow unfair for me that facebook is using me for their monetary purposes without asking me to do it, especially even before I sign-up in facebook. Earning millions for themselves and without a dime for myself. I like the way facebook before way back the time when facebook still starting, there where no ads it was just plain facebook. But on the other side, if I am the owner of the facebook, will I will be paid for my work? The fact that the users are benefitting from the services provided by the facebook site to its users. I think their will be no company will stay for long without earnings to spend for development or operational expenses. I think its alright for every company to monetize their sites, just informed or ask permissions to its users. Or place it on their agreement explicitly.

4.    What are the good and bad sides that Facebook has implemented as new means of making money online? Is it a good idea to sell goods and products on its website? How do you think to maximize online advertisement through Facebook?

Ans:

            Having advertisement on facebook provides two sides-it has an advantages and disadvantages. Let’s talk first with the advantages-the users are given a chance to buy products that they might feel of importance or needs. They can click it to buy it and it’s up to the users not to buy it. It’s there for their in case some users might find it useful because advertisement is filtered based on the browsing activities and preferences.  But on the other hand (disadvantages), users find it annoying to being offered with a lot of stuff that they find it irrelevant to them. Advertisement found in every page of facebook occupies a significant amount of the user’s screens that it’s too hard for them to ignore. Its annoying sometimes to see advertisement in facebook page that when you click to ignore it, it will just disappear and be replace with some other advertisement. For me facebook still can used advertisement on their page maybe by limiting the number of advertisement to be display in every page. Or have options to display or not be displayed on the screen. Or setup special page on facebook that displays all the monetary advertisement to that page.

5.    Recently Facebook began selling stocks to the public in the most talked-about market debut in years.  As an entrepreneur, should you jump in on Facebook stocks? Why or Why not? Explain.

Ans:

Well this is interesting for every entrepreneur because if you try to look the stocks of facebook, it will not go elsewhere but UP. In spite of the issues surrounding facebook there are still a lot of ordinary users in facebook that doesn’t care about this and mostly probably the majority of the populations feels the same. More and more users will come to be a member of facebook. This is a very attracted to business entrepreneurs, they always love to follow the money. So if you ask me if I’m willing to buy some stocks to facebook, I will definitely say yes.