How many times did you uninstall an app on your phone for privacy reasons? Because you didn’t want to share your details and personal data? I guess it is not that often. It seems like nobody really cares about their privacy, because almost everyone agrees on the terms and conditions offered by large firms like Facebook. Or even the terms and conditions of a simple flashlight app that asks for permission to access your photos, videos and Wi-Fi. (Schellevis, 2014)
“I got nothing to hide” is an often heard statement. That is in my opinion definitely not true, we got things ‘to hide’. Due to the technological developments regarding big data, commercial companies can know more about you than you should want. For example that someone is pregnant before her father knows. (Hill, 2012) And more important, they can influence you more than you want with this information. Personal information is an important aspect of the choices we make, so this information can be used to influence our behaviour. Privacy is also related to personal development, we make mistakes when we are young, and because these mistakes can stay private, we are able to adjust our behaviour or opinion. Privacy enables us to develop ourselves without definitely being confronted with our wrong choices from the past. Privacy is of vital importance. (Solove, 2014)
To my surprise, research shows, the Dutch do care about their privacy. Four out of ten Facebook users in the Netherlands consider quitting Facebook due to privacy concerns. More than half of the Facebook users claim to be somehow aware of the ways of Facebook collecting our personal data. For 86% of the users, this is the reason to act reserved on Facebook. (NU.nl, 2016)
The problem we face is that we only have 2 options: you either stay on Facebook and accept you have less privacy, or quit you Facebook. The same research shows that two out of three users would like to stay on Facebook to be updated about their friends. Therefore, for a lot users, quitting is not really an option. This mechanism is true for almost all the application/websites we use. I would suggest that either the governments should pressure these big organizations to stop collecting our personal data on this scale, or make laws to force companies like Facebook to stop. Because privay is of vital importance.
Hill, K. (2012). How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/#368944d934c6 [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].
Nu.nl (2016). ‘Vier op tien Facebook-gebruikers overwegen te stoppen om privacyzorgen’. [online] Available at: http://www.nu.nl/internet/4339451/vier-tien-facebook-gebruikers-overwegen-stoppen-privacyzorgen.htm l [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].
Schellevis, J. (2014). Privacywaakhonden: veel apps onduidelijk over privacy. [online] Tweakers. Available at: https://tweakers.net/nieuws/98366/privacywaakhonden-veel-apps-onduidelijk-over-privacy.html [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].
Solove, D. (2014). 10 Reasons Why Privacy Matters. [online] Linkedin Blog. Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140113044954-2259773-10-reasons-why-privacy-matters?_mSplash=1 [Accessed 21 Oct. 2016].
the privacy debate is really interesting. I think the problem lies in the fact that for free-to-use applications, they need to get something in return from the user. I mean, they need to earn their money in some way, right?
What maybe could be a solution is that every medium/application should get a paid privacy-version. If you pay for the application, the company will not record any of your information. In this way every user can decide for him/herself if he would like to use the free no-privacy version or the paid privacy version?
this will probably be difficult to really put into practice, but can potentially provide a different view on the topic.
First of all, thank you for your post and I am very interested in this topic. Personally I have had concerns before regarding to the privacy issues on Facebook. It seems to collect more data than we might expected. For instance, I once went to an online shopping site for a short browse, then right after I received ads of the same product on the same online shopping site on Facebook, which was a bit shocking and scary. I completely agree with you that something has to be done in order to protect our privacy when using any of the app/website. However, it seems rather difficult to come up with a very suitable solution. In my opinion, it is easier with mobile app as we are free to change the settings in our phone whether or not to give the accessibility to our person data such as photo, contact list or location, etc. On the other hand, social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and so on) is more tricky as people gradually develop a sense of belonging as it is more of a community nowadays. Based on some articles I have read before, it is theorised that people primarily join online community for information exchange, social support and entertainment reasons. An exploratory study empirically examines the importance of these reasons in assessing why people join virtual communities by directly asking virtual community members.Across 27 communities in 5 different broad types, 569 different reasons from 399 people confirmed the theory mentioned above. (Ridings and Gefen, 2006) Therefore, it is very obvious that from the perspective of the users, it is very challenging to just quit using all these social media sites so shutting down Facebook law force might not be the best solution, but more regulation on the data collection indeed seems helpful!
sorry forgot the reference!
Ridings, C. and Gefen, D. (2006). Virtual Community Attraction: Why People Hang Out Online. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(1), pp.00-00.
Privacy is becoming a bigger problem now a days. Every company wants to collect as much data as possible, hoping to figure out some new competitive advantage. The main problem I think is that most people have no idea what this actually means. What is privacy actually? What do these companies collect? What do they do with what they collect? Why does it matter?
It’s interesting to read that more than half of the Dutch Facebook users are ‘somehow’ aware that Facebook collects their data. I wonder if these people really know what Facebook does. It is interesting to see that it influences their behavior on the site. This is something that I believe people should do whenever they are online, not just on Facebook. Of course, I wish people would have more privacy online, but what people should realize is that this simply isn’t possible. The internet is a medium through which you can reach millions, even billions of people. To expect that you can still retain some form of privacy while reaching out to that many people is naive. In my opinion anything that you do online, you should realize that this is not private. To expect companies like Facebook to protect our privacy is unwarranted and frankly, too high of a demand.
If having your privacy ‘violated’ by companies like Facebook, it might be an idea to look into what other companies collect. Google tracks so much user behavior, as does pretty much every other site that you visit now a days. People that complain about Facebook should start thinking about what part of their privacy they really find important and if it even is that important at all. In general my personal rule is always, don’t do or say things online that you wouldn’t do in a public place such as a shopping mall or highly packed train station.
Hi Leon,
Thank you for your interesting post. I definitely agree with you, that most people agree with Facebook privacy conditions without reading them. The main problem in this case is that Facebook creates a lock-in for their users, because others (your friends) are expecting from you that you will be active on social media platforms like Facebook. The positive same-side network effects are extreme high for most users.
I agree with you that the government should keep an eye on Facebook and this is actually already happening. In May 2014 the European Court adopted a new law that says that everyone should be/can be deleted from the Internet and so is Facebook mandatory to accept these ‘deletion’ request from users. This limits Facebook’s opportunity to keep track of all your data.
My final recommendation on your post is for Facebook: make a sort summary of all the privacy statements that can be read by users in just two minutes. This should make users, at least, more aware of Facebook’s privacy policy. Hopefully, this makes people thinking about the question: ‘What should I post and what shouldn’t I post.’
Source: http://www.rtlnieuws.nl/nieuws/opmerkelijk/waarom-facebook-opeens-bezorgd-om-onze-privacy
Leon, I think the blog you’ve written was really interesting to me. Privacy issues and privacy rules are daily fodder for news. I think I read almost every week, maybe even everyday something about privacy concerns on the internet. However, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself more and better. See this article from the Dutch tech-site DutchCowboys,http://www.dutchcowboys.nl/socialmedia/5-tips-zo-bescherm-je-je-privacy-op-facebook, I think this could be interesting for you. I would like to add that there are not only downsides of giving away all your information on the internet at sites like Facebook. Directly target ads for instance, can be experienced as a useful addition to inform you where and what stuff you would like to buy. Moreover, I think you always have the decision in your own hands whether you are giving away details of yourself on the internet.
Hey Leon, thank you for your post about privacy it’s really interesting and I totally agree with you.
I wanted to add that oeople indeed state they are concerned about losing their privacy and be attentive to social media, but the most social media and apps use a false sense of security which tricks people. For example Facebook has a whole list of privacy settings, with who of your friends or facebook users are able to see your posts. But behind the back of the user they still sell all the information to companies and advertisers which keeps ignorant users.
Dear Leon, interesting post about privacy. I agree with you that the statement “I got nothing to hide” is not true. It looks like people not really know what the consequences are of firms collecting data of consumers. For example, Facebook has a list about personality traits and interests of each Facebook user. It could really hurt somebody’s life if all those data would fall in the wrong hands. Companies that collect data of consumers should clearly communicate to the users which data they collect and for what purpose. In my opinion the government should start a campaign in which they make clear that you have to be more careful on the internet regarding privacy. Furthermore, companies should make it more transparent for the consumer in what they intent to do with the collected data.