Ethics and Social Responsibility Relevant to Facebook - Essay Example

? Topic Introduction With the dawn of the 21st century, many types of media technologies, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn etc. have taken over the social, political and informational practices of individuals. They has also revolutionized and modified the way people interact with each other and share their views, all around the globe. Furthermore, they has enabled and invited philosophical views from diverse communities. The continuous evolution of the social networking technologies has raised questions related to the ethics and social responsibility. This has occurred due to the fact that it has reshaped how human beings are getting involved in any type of virtual social bonds and friendships. The social networking sites operate at interpersonal levels. The communication involves the ethical and social considerations between friend to friend, parents to their children, employer to the employee, employee to the employee, doctor to patient, teacher to student, and buyer to sellers; in fact, it encompasses every human relationship which exists in the world. The ethics and the social responsibility related to the Facebook and how they are dealing with it shall be discussed in this paper. To take a deeper insight into the ethics and social responsibility of social networking sites, a brief history related to the social networking will be highlighted, regarding the information on how they have expanded. Definitions and history of social networking sites Social networking seems to be an ambiguous term used for such sites. Human beings are inherently social creatures. From the very start, they have developed different ways and modes to communicate with each other. They cannot live in complete isolation from each other. For this purpose, human beings have always facilitated and built structured social networks. These institutions and facilities included community clubs, public places, churches and communication technologies such as postal and courier system, telephone and telegraph system. However, with the passage of time and tremendous increase in technological advancement, they have started resorting to faster and quicker ways of communications in the form of information technology. Most of these are based on the software standards of Web 2.0 (Vallor 2012). Before the emergence of Web 2.0 standards, various forms of networking such as chat rooms, Bulletin Board System (BBS) and MUD’s (multi user’s dungeons) were being used for social interactions (Barnes 2001; Turkle 1995). These early social networking places worked typically as places of commercial, personal or academic exploitation. These were rather used for broad social purposes. The purpose behind the emergence of Web 2.0 was to produce user-friendly, collaborative and communicative internet content. Though the initial aims of the developers were same as that of the previous social networking and internet but it evolved with the rapid changes in the technology. Social topography of the internet has been redefined by Web 2.0 social interfaces which built increased social networks between their users online as well as offline. This trend shifted the original function of internet from pseudonymous identities to formation of Sui Generis social networking (Ess 2011). Sites which adopted new trends The very first websites which adopted the explicit standards for social networking were Orkut, FaceBook, LinkedIn, MySpace, Friendster, Beboand Habbo. The recent change in these trends is the rise in the media sharing sites such as You Tube, icro-blogging sites such as Twitter, Location based networking sites such as Google Latitude and interest sharing sites such as Pinterest (Vallor 2012). Rise of ethical concerns related to social networking sites One of the sub parts of the computer and information ethics is the ethical implications of Social Networking Sites (Bynum 2011). With an increase in the social networking phenomenon and owing much to the effects and usage of the computer as a medium of social communication, the researchers have increasingly become interested in the development of ethics of SNS. The early philosophers, who had demonstrated concerns to the ethical issues related to the usage of social networking sites, were Albert Borgmann and Hubert Dreyfus. Facebook: one of the most popular Social Networking Site Facebook was founded in 2004 with a mission to make a world more open and connected place. In the past five years, Facebook has outnumbered all the users of other websites. It has developed itself as one of the largest social networking places where one can interact socially with the people across the globe. People have become addicted to the use of Facebook. Whereever they go, whatever they do, they feel that it has become their second nature to upload status on the Facebook. As the Facebook epidemic has taken over everyone around the world, there is a need to follow certain ethics or codes of conduct when using this social media site. Basic Features of Face book Facebook is a social networking site that creates connections with friends and relatives across the globe. It can be signed-up for free and the users are free to post comments, upload photos, videos and post status updates. It has specified privacy settings in the user’s area which can be set according to the requirements of the individual user. These settings range from only the friends viewing the information to making it totally a public profile. The security of information feature gives a power to the users to control the amount of information they wish to share with others. The Facebook users can join geographically, build networks, or in a few cases, form their own private networks such as college, university, school or workplace networks. Friends can be added by the users, but the users do also have the right to accept or reject friend requests. They can send messages privately in the inbox space or can be posted on the wall publically. Facebook also has various blogging and chat features. Facebook connect was launched in 2008, which allows to post the entries on other applications as well. Facebook groups can also be created based on common interests and causes. The unlimited number of users can become a fan of the specific group or organization. It also offers a platform to organize and plan events by inviting other people. There are game applications which can be played with other online users. It provides advertising place for the sellers to advertise their goods or websites. Ethics and social responsibility of Facebook as a company The key elements for the effective performance of the Social Networking are ethics and social responsibility, which they follow. It is beyond any doubt that Facebook has established itself as one of the most profitable companies in the world including the giants of the industry like Microsoft, Apple etc. Facebook has earned huge profits since it became extremely popular amongst the people of all ages and groups. Whether it is a teenage boy or girl, middle aged men or women, those working or studying, one often finds time to connect with Facebook through their cell phones, notepads, or laptops. Along with all the hype that Facebook has created in the recent years, comes the ethical and social responsibility of the company. Since company is dealing with human users, there should be ethical and social considerations which should be followed strictly to keep the privacy of its users. A Society of Corporate and Social Compliance and Ethics and Health Care Compliance Association has looked into the issues related to Social media usage in organizations. A survey was conducted, in which 24% of the surveyed said that they disciplined their employees for their activities on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter in an organization. But half of them responded that they had no rules and regulations regarding the usage of social networking sites outside of working place (Hyatt 2010). Critically evaluating this situation, Facebook has been utilizing more of a trial and error kind of strategy, thus modifying its privacy settings and modes of interactions based on the public response. The privacy strategy along with the versatile use of applications had been the comparative advantage of Facebook ever since its existence, yet it has failed to offer such advantages at various levels. As an organization, Facebook has been relying solely on the “spamming” tab to deal with any such privacy issues, though the current transformation must be applauded as the privacy settings had been perfected over time. The use of Social Networking technologies has created a new sense of urgency about the computer security and privacy. It has created the debate over many issues, such as the debate over the nature of privacy, i.e. should it be in terms of informational control (Elgesem 1996), restriction to informational access (Tavani 2007) or for contextual integrity (Nissenbaum 2004). These need to be re-examined and reviewed in the light of the privacy practices of Facebook and other Social Networking Sites. A critical review over this scenario implicitly identifies the loopholes in the company`s strategy to comply by the ethical and the moral standards it had promised as the trademark of the company. While Facebook has always focused over the issue of “who can view what”, “who can send you friend requests” or other relevant concerns, it has ignored the context of the perceptions formation element of the company. Facebook alone has the potential to deform or reform public opinion, thus in my modest view, there must be a mechanism which ensures what kind of content is accessible to what kind of audience. For instance, like certain apps or particular posts or even certain content may be too overwhelming for an adult for up to 16 years of age. As an instance, communities like “the conspiracy syndrome” or pages like “the conspiracy theorist” might incline a teenager`s mind to issues too complicated for their age, which may as well lead to violence. Thus, Facebook must take their social as well as ethical responsibility seriously enough as a part of their commitment with the customers. A study was conducted to gain an insight into the moral values being portrayed by Facebook (Light & McGrath 2010). The research took over a period of two years, based on qualitative field work. The authors took the position that both technology and humans owe a moral character which may not be transparent to the users of the site. Not much research has been done on this aspect of the technology. Authors, by focusing on the technology as the moral actor, tried to reveal and diffuse the complex nature of the ethical responsibility and the resulting implications for the control of Facebook and other SNS. Usage of Facebook The following graph issued by the Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney provides an insight into the time spent by the users on the Facebook as compared to other sites (Kafka 2011). Practices of concern related to the use of Facebook Some of the fundamental practices in this respect which are of concern are: The potential availability of the data of the users’ at the sites to the third parties for the purposes of commercial usage, surveillance or data mining processes. Automatic identification of the person through uploaded photos by using the facial-recognition software. The threat of the third party applications to publish or collect the data of the user without any permission or awareness. The usage of ‘cookies’ to track the activity of the users after they stopped using Social networking sites. Illicit monitoring or stalking of the users of SNS through location-based Social networking. Activity or information sharing of the users with government based agencies. The potential threat of Social Networking Sites for the sharing of unethical or ill-informed information sharing with the other users. Facebook has been in the limelight more often than not, for criticism (Spinello 2011) related to its privacy practices because it contains far more personal sensitive data as compared to other Social Networking Sites. There are certain ethics which may be of concern to real human life. Some of these are; Ethics of human relations: These Social Networking sites, such as Facebook have an architecture which is insensitive to the human sociality (Hill, Lipford & Latulipe 2011). This means that they tend to ignore the diversity in the human relations such as familial, professional, commercial etc. the privacy control in such case lead towards the overlapping of the different social spheres. It requires having a Contextual Integrity (Nissenbaum 2010), which demands that the context privacy and norms should be respected in information practices. The balance should be formed between the simplicity and ease of use along with the rich and complex structures of our social diversity. It raises the question of how such Social Networking Privacy interfaces should be made more accessible and social for the users. The integrity of the private as well as public sphere has become fragile due to the widespread usage of Social Networking Sites. Ethics of identity: A relatively new kind of space is offered by the Social networking sites for the formation, presentation, negotiation and management of both virtual and real identities. This has generated the ethical issues related to the identity of the people. In the case of Facebook, unlike the previous Social Networking sites, real member identities and connections are anchored and embodied selves and offline real world networks. But still it has permitted such self- presentation and offline presentation which offline social places like home, school or work place may not allow. Another issue may arise after the death of the Facebook users’ relate to the communal memorialization of their profiles. Ethics of friendship, virtue and good life: Many relational connections are facilitated by the Social Networking Sites. LinkedIn fosters professional connections in our social lives, Facebook makes connections between people from around the globe, and the new surge in business profiles on Facebook has created links with the existing ones which may have the tendency to make new consumers. However, analysis indicates that for all such connections and relations, a word ‘Friend’ has been used which has changed its meaning in the virtual world. It lacks the real world face-to-face relationship and connections perspectives. It further lacks the real warmth and bond of friendship shared by the real world friends. Adding insult to injury, it has also distracted users from the needs of the people who surround them. It’s also a common observation now that people are checking obsessively their newsfeed during family gatherings, and other social events. Safety and Privacy rules of Facebook Facebook has revolutionized the virtual social world. In one of the study it was found that average users spend almost 3-5 hours a month daily on Facebook as compared to the time spent on rival MY Space site (Nishikawa 2007). With the Facebook usage being enhanced, questions are being raised regarding the safety and privacy practices adopted by the company of Facebook. Many ethical concerns have raised heads related to its wide spread social popularity in all social setups. Facebook, as a company, has set certain ethical standards and rules to ensure the security and safety of its users which are as follow; Sharing and privacy: There is a tool of in-line controls in Facebook. It allows the users to show their posts only to the selected audience. Time-line feature: The new timeline feature provides Activity logs where the users take review and manage one’s posted things and the actions taken. Download Your Information feature: this feature enables the users to retrieve data from the Facebook which can be used outside of Facebook. Safety: Facebook has made efforts to ensure the safety of its users by using different features. Such as the ‘Report’ feature allows reporting any inappropriate, offensive or dangerous content. ‘social reporting’ options enable people to report any untrusted content , to send copy of content to some trusted friend or to block the person who posted that content. Safety Advisory Board: a Safety Advisory Board has been set up by Face Book which is responsible for providing advice and feedback relating to the quality of Face Book environment and to create resources for Family Safety Centre. Security: Facebook has its security team which keeps on working towards developing a secure environment for its users. It cleans the site for any spam, Phishing, malware and other kinds of security threats. Other kind of security technology which is unique to Facebook is also used to ensure the security of the people. Thus, a critical analysis of the privacy rules concerning the “visibility factor” signifies that Facebook has successfully dealt with the issue and has also managed to attain considerable trust factor with its users. However, as far as the issue of contextual privacy is concerned, Facebook needs a lot of improvement. For instance, no matter how insane it sounds, but the culture in Islamic states gives set space for polygamy, thus as a matter of cultural sensitivity, I feel that Facebook should allow an option of adding multiples wives as their relatives on Facebook. Similarly, issues on the third party privacy being an important ethical concern must also be resolved. I may be someone who prefers keeping a low profile over the virtual world, and if Googling my own name brings up an archival directly of my personal information, it would not be an exaggeration if I deem it as a violation of my ethical rights. Conclusion The increasing popularity of the Social Networking sites and especially of Facebook amongst the users of all ages has raised many questions related to the ethical concerns and social responsibility. These ethical and social issues need to be taken seriously and should be dealt with in an appropriate fashion. Facebook has presented itself as a comparably securer and a safer network as compared to the previous Web 2.0 applications. It has also provided safe and secure environment to its users where they can share their personal information and experiences according to their own free will. It’s not just the responsibility of the Social Networking Sites but also the responsibility on the part of the users to behave as responsible and sensible users, as the social media is yet another experimenting ground for the company itself. Bibliography Barnes, SB 2001, Online Connections: Internet Interpersonal Relationships, Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. Bynum, T 2011, Computer and Information Ethics, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), viewed 8 January 2013 Eid, M & Ward, SJA 2009, Editorial: Ethics, new media, and social networks, Global Media Journal – Canadian Edition, 2(1), 1-4. Elgesem, D 1996, Privacy, Respect for Persons, and Risk, in Philosophical Perspectives on Computer-Mediated Communication, C. Ess (ed.), Albany, NY: SUNY Press, pp. 45–66. Ess, C 2011, Self, Community and Ethics in Digital Mediatized Worlds,in Trust and Virtual Worlds: Contemporary Perspectives, C. Ess and M. 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