People tend to think that privacy is important to them, especially with all the social media sites and apps that collect and use your data. This blog post is meant to argue the point that you, and most other people in the world hardly care about privacy.
In Value Sensitive Design and Information Systems, the philosopher Batya Friedman argues that human values are “implicated” in system design which I’m inclined to believe. He specifically included privacy as one of these values but he made sure not to say how each of the values is included. Friedman did however include a report from the Federal Trade Commission in 200 which found that 59% of web sites that collect personally identifying information neither informed nor sought consent from the users for collecting the data. At the same time, according to a Harris poll in 2000 found that 88% of users want sites to seek consent in these situations. Over the last 20 years we have become desensitized and I would bet these numbers have changed materially.
Here is a great example about you not caring about your privacy, when was the last time you read the terms and conditions of something online? You’ve probably never even done it, just like me. You chose to submit your rights to a company without evening knowing what they were or what they plan on doing with them. I even found a photo of you signing up to TikTok last year.
Once people found out what companies like Facebook have been doing with their data they acted appalled, when in reality it didn’t even change most people’s habits. Facebook daily active users have risen since right before the Cambridge Analytica scandal to now and they didn’t even take a hit.
Try and see when on this graph the scandal broke, you might think you found it but that would be pure luck. It happened at the very end of Q1 2018 so it would be affecting the Q2 2018 numbers. There is absolutely no indication on this graph that anyone cared about the data breach, and even if they did, growth has continued through 2019 and into 2020.
As an Econ major, I think that people do what they want even if doing so contradicts what they claim to want. People continue to show through their actions that they do not care about privacy every time they create an account, post photos, post status updates, or share their location. Even with a “private” account they know that all their friends have access not to mention the website that is hosting the information.
Facebook knows you don't care about your data, because of this they can collect even more than people ever thought was possible. They know you won't push back hard enough and it makes the most economic sense to take a social capital setback in order to construct a system that collects more data. They have “implicated” societies value of privacy into their business model by using the fact that your privacy is a relatively small concern to construct a more data driven product. When it comes to social media, you are the product and the advertisers are the customers, the site itself is just a way to aggregate your attention and information for the consumer to use.
Hey Hayden, nice improvements from the last post. I liked how you included more information from the readings to validate your claims. I thought you could've done it in a way that flows better but I wouldn't say the way you have it is bad, it just kind of does not fit with the tone of the rest of the post. I liked how you expanded on your views as an Econ major and used that as analysis for topic. The bird box joke is still great so good job!
ReplyDeleteI was largely interested in your post because the statement that people don't care about their privacy is underrated. I liked how you added more detail from the Friedman reading into your second paragraph from your last post; however, I wish you tied it back to the reading at the end as well. How did Friedman's readings help you conclude that privacy doesn't matter? Why do you think Friedman did not specify on how the value of privacy is implicated? Also, I am not sure if I agree that people show they do not care about privacy when they create social media accounts. Is it the user's job to keep themselves safe online or the company's job in keeping their customers safe online? I felt you were very personable when you talked about the economics of it, but you also gave us the facts with the Cambridge Analytica example. Overall, I loved to see a new perspective on privacy these days.
ReplyDeleteThis post was a good improvement on your last post! You did a good job of incorporating more discussion of the readings, however I found it a little difficult to understand the connection between the readings and your example. One recommendation is to incorporate the reading in a way that flows better, perhaps a little bit after you had talk about your example with Facebook. Other than this, I think you had a solid post and I enjoyed reading it!
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