FACEBOOK AND PRIVACY

OR LACK THEREOF…

N.L. Goodman

Facebook and privacy.  Yeah, those two words do not work together, nor should they be together.  Facebook and privacy or the lack thereof, is more like it. There is no such thing as privacy in today’s digital culture.  So stop being so appalled at the hearings here and across the pond.  There is no such thing as privacy anymore.

In case you did not know it, society has lost its privacy many, many years ago, but not too many understood, nor saw it coming.  Now, it’s air-apparent.  When you search for an item, it now pops up as an ad somewhere else. Invasive, but the advertisers call it intuitive.  No, intuitive would have been if Wiki, added to their search, a sidebar asking if we wanted to buy or have more information on the topic which we searched.  Intuitive would have been had we been served ads or information to further our needs or expand our horizons.  The Privacy and permissions ship has long sailed and already sunk.

When you sign up for facebook, they ask questions to which we are all familiar.  Their hoops of questions seem like a hassle, when in fact, they are linked to our friends and families and our behaviors.  When you type in ‘family’ you are now digitally linked and therefore found and associated with your family. And when your facebook site is public, then all the world knows your family, including public domain searches.  Privacy? Yeah, none.  We may love our family, but we don’t always want to be associated with them, or have people know our kin.  Not that we’re embarrassed, we just want our … privacy.

Facebook sold us out.  They sold our information.  Why, because it’s a moneymaker. A huge, gigantor, money-maker.  Your behavior, what you buy and what you read is gold to marketers.  With your facebook account and your behavior, the right buyer can serve you ads from their clients and have a direct link to your account.  Privacy, yeah, not at all.

Not being asked if we want a news feed or ads served isn’t even a premium service.  On facebook, there is no such thing as a premium service.  Yeah, Zuckerberg learned how to sell-out.  What does he care about our privacy.  He’s a businessman.  His goal is to make money.

What he lacked was a conscious.

A conscious about right and wrong.  A conscious about invasion. A true leader must think of his community on many levels; whereas, a unscrupulous businessman, only believes in his profits.

During the hearings when he stated, he needed to tweak a few things, which he did, he’s referencing facebook’s historic past when mega-information was sold; which years ago he “fixed”.  But the geezers who are asking the dumb questions have NO IDEA that there is STILL no privacy.  Why?  Because they truly do not understand the platform.  The process of questions, the process of the digital era, the process of gathered and sold information.  Sad.  Governments in charge have barely an idea of the digital usage and the personal and communal damage.

Facebook’s Zuckerberg answers hearing questions with such modern grace; not answering, yet saying he’ll look into it.  He is wise to answer that way.  He knows all too well that solid, yes, no answers lead to convictions, ergo, responsibility for one’s actions, not apologies for the results of one’s actions.