‘Facebook says it will not extend GDPR privacy protections beyond EU’
The article is about the most popular social media website namely, Facebook which has risen significant concern in the present world due to its privacy issues. On interviewing Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, it has been learned that he is hesitant towards the application of European protections worldwide.
This in turn critically raised political as well as legal issues which have become a significant concern towards the company.
As stated by (Brandtzæg et al. 2010), Facebook has no intentions to extend its user privacy protections namely GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation, a law to the users of its social network in terms of the global world.
This made general public to go through the significant stress and concern regarding their social media account on Facebook.
Facebook privacy is a significant concern as a large amount of personal information are available on the Facebook pages which makes their livelihood vulnerable with unknown access of a third party.
As per the Privacy Protection Act, this kind of violation of user’s privacy can lead to critical measures which may degrade the credibility of Facebook, (Christofides et al. 2009).
The key legal issues that have been identified form the discussion is the privacy issue of users having an account on Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg being hesitant about applying for the European protection worldwide is a significant concern as this may lead to loss of confidential data of the users. Also, it has been observed that in an interview Mark said that Facebook can offer some privacy guarantees but there would be exceptions which are unclear from the statement (Debatin et al. 2009).
On the other hand, the rumor of Facebook giving access to 3rd party app developers and changes to its ads practices may result in privacy violation of the user’s and can be misused.
Though the GDPR regulations mandate its applicability in several countries it operates, it does not seem that Facebook is ready to take such measures, (Hoadley et al. 2010).
As per my view, I suggest that rigid laws and regulations must be framed against Facebook as well as the people having their account in Facebook must delete their account as this kind of privacy violation may result in severe damage.
This may change the mind of Zuckerberg to initiate GDPR in every country.
I suggest that GDPR must be initiated in every country where people have their accounts on Facebook as this can ensure safety and low threats.
The initiative Facebook took to involve 3rd party application developer, is critical and it needs to be eliminated in order to make people safe about their privacy and confidential information, (Hoy & Milne, 2010).
Incorporation of substantial ads has also led to privacy issues as this may lead to the access of the third party towards the confidential information provided by the users.
Friend’s post-
As my friend suggested that deleting Facebook account is not a viable option to initiate privacy policies like GDPR and if the threat to privacy was a critical issue for Facebook then Mark Zuckerberg would have taken significant steps to eliminate such threat to privacy.
Facebook is an open platform where users take their own risk to provide their personal information and if they limit to provide such data on the online platform then their risk to privacy issues might lower down, (Hull et al. 2011).
However, initiation of GDPR in a global world is a significant point and it may decrease the threats as well as a violation of privacy which needs to be adopted by Facebook and this can also make people safe.
Also, restricting the 3rd party app developers is a positive argument that has been raised as they get access to the confidential information which can be used against the users.
However, restricting ads completely is not a good idea as it can impact the business viability of Facebook at the wide range because most of the revenue it earns comes from this sector, (Waters & Ackerman, 2011).
My comment–
Thanks for the appreciation and to some extent your comments are justifiable and at some they are not.
I meant deleting the account can change Zuckerberg’s mind and he may think to initiate GDPR globally for the privacy of users and later the users can again activate their account.
Yes, other than deleting they can deactivate their account for sometimes.
However, allowing third-party users to attain user’s information is not viable which needs to be stopped, (Raynes-Goldie, 2010).
Though Facebook is an open platform, it needs to provide privacy guarantee to its users to attain their trust as several cases have been filed against Facebook based on political as well as human against violation of privacy.
References
Journals
Brandtzæg, P. B., Lüders, M., & Skjetne, J. H. (2010). Too many Facebook “friends”? Content sharing and sociability versus the need for privacy in social network sites. Intl. Journal of Human–Computer Interaction, 26(11-12), 1006-1030.
Christofides, E., Muise, A., & Desmarais, S. (2009). Information disclosure and control on Facebook: Are they two sides of the same coin or two different processes?. Cyberpsychology & behavior, 12(3), 341-345.
Debatin, B., Lovejoy, J. P., Horn, A. K., & Hughes, B. N. (2009). Facebook and online privacy: Attitudes, behaviors, and unintended consequences. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 15(1), 83-108.
Hoadley, C. M., Xu, H., Lee, J. J., & Rosson, M. B. (2010). Privacy as information access and illusory control: The case of the Facebook News Feed privacy outcry. Electronic commerce research and applications, 9(1), 50-60.
Hoy, M. G., & Milne, G. (2010). Gender differences in privacy-related measures for young adult Facebook users. Journal of Interactive Advertising, 10(2), 28-45.
Hull, G., Lipford, H. R., & Latulipe, C. (2011). Contextual gaps: privacy issues on Facebook. Ethics and information technology, 13(4), 289-302.
Raynes-Goldie, K., 2010. Aliases, creeping, and wall cleaning: Understanding privacy in the age of Facebook. First Monday, 15(1).
Waters, S., & Ackerman, J. (2011). Exploring privacy management on Facebook: Motivations and perceived consequences of voluntary disclosure. Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 17(1), 101-115.
Article
theverge.com, 2018. Facebook says it will not extend GDPR privacy protections beyond EU. The Verge. Retrieved 3 April 2018, from https://www.theverge.com/2018/4/3/17194504/facebook-mark-zuckerberg-gdpr-privacy-protections-europe
