Introduction
The case is about ethical and unethical Facebook has made
during its business operation. It has been blamed time and again for selling
the sensitive information of the users to the advertisers. According to Peng
(2014), "Facebook has been playing with fire and has got its fingers
burned, again" (pg. 119), Facebook has been accused and it has accepted
that it has sold the data to the advertisers but only as an advertisement.
Since it is a profit motive organization, it has to earn from the platform anyhow
but not in the cost of users privacy. Business houses have looked to Facebook
as a platform to advertise and sell their products. The question has been if
Facebook needs to be in tight rules and regulation and in doing so Facebook
will lose its innovations or not. Since Facebook has a very good set of
intellectual individuals, it will continue to stand high in this field.
1. On Ethics: Supporters of Facebook argue that Facebook's
contribution to mankind-think of its positive role behind the Arab Spring of 2011-outweigh
its ethical imperfections. Overly harsh regulations will suffocate its capacity
to innovate. Do you agree or disagree?
Facebook has emerged from the social networking site to an
online business platform. It has provided all types of business houses to
either advertise or sell their products. More likely small business
entrepreneurs have benefited more from this platform since they can sell their
products online via Facebook without the need of any physical location. It has
created a platform to reach the targeted market segment for the entrepreneurs
at a low cost and to a large population.
I do not think that the overly harsh regulations will
suffocate the innovation capacity of Facebook, it has spent the maximum of its
resources in the research and development team. The team that Facebook has are
able to overcome any tackles since they are in this industry for a long time
and I believe they have all the answers and knowledge to the rules and regulations
to operate its business. The main problem for Facebook is the questionability
of the secureness of the data that its users have provided to Facebook. Though
Facebook will keep on giving us new innovations whatever might be the
situations but it should never attempt to cross the rules and regulations that
will harm the private life of people or the national sovereignty of any
country.
2. ON ETHICS: Critics of Facebook argue that it's business
model is violating user privacy. Without selling sensitive personal information
to advertisers, how can it make money? Therefore, Facebook must be on a tight
regulatory leash. Do you agree or disagree?
Every business is established to make money but making money
in an unethical way is not void. The same thing is implemented with Facebook,
it needs to make money but not by putting the privacy of its users on the edge.
Earning by posting ads on users wall is ethical but selling the email and other
vital information should be avoided. Facebook has been questioned every time
not for the advertisement but for the sale of the personal data of users to the
advertisers.
As per my personal experience, Facebook has been recording
our conversation and posting ads accordingly though Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of
Facebook has denied the same. This is totally unethical of Facebook to record
the conversation of any person though it might have implemented artificial
intelligence to record only the keywords from the user's conversation it's not
the right thing to do.
Since Facebook is also established to make money, it needs
to advertise on the walls of the users to generate revenue. But it's totally
unacceptable if Facebook sales the personal sensitive information to the
advertisers. They can continue to make revenue by staying at top of the
platform just by using letting ads from insensitive information like location,
gender, age, work environment, traveling history. I think it will be enough for
Facebook to earn through insensitive information. So Facebook should be tightly
in regulation leash regarding sensitive information and also there should be
regulation for Facebook not to record and ask the sensitive information from
the users.
3. ON ETHICS: Are some of Facebook employees "bad
apples" or is Facebook a "bad barrel"?
We cannot blame Facebook employees as "bad apples"
since it is a job and people can make some mistakes if the information is
leaked through programmatic errors. We have not heard that Facebook employees
have ever leaked the users' information to anyone so it will be harsh to mark
them as bad apples just for the errors they have made programmatically.
Facebook as an organization is not a "bad barrel"
though it had bad unethical choices to sell the user's information data
directly to the advertisers like personal email and phone number. People do not
prefer any type of advertisements directly in their mailbox or get a cold call,
its people choices to open or not in case of social networking. If people find
it interesting, they will open the advertisements but it should not be done
forcefully by negative marketing. So I assume that the information leaked
unintentionally is acceptable but as Facebook as selling the information time
and again so the main people operating Facebook has made it look like "bad
barrel".
Conclusion:
In conclusion, Facebook has been doing pretty good to
mankind by making a good platform to connect people worldwide, providing a mass
platform to advertise and sell the products or services online at low cost. It
needs to look after the privacy of its users time and again and it should avoid
selling that information directly to the advertiser. Facebook should operate in
tight rules and regulations according to the regions it serves. It should avoid
the tag of "bad barrel" by providing more security to its users and a
more open platform to the businesses.
References
Peng, Mike W. (2014). Global Strategy. Emphasizing
Institutions, Cultures, and Ethics. Cengage.
Warren, Kennedy-Marie Warren (21 Sep 2016). Facebook Violates
Privacy. Retrieved 18 April 2019, from
https://prezi.com/dgqzj-t2opdm/facebook-violates-policy/
https://prezi.com/dgqzj-t2opdm/facebook-violates-policy/
Unkonwn (28 Aug 2002). Enron and Anderson: Bad Apples or Bad
Barrels? Retrieved 18 April 2019, from
