Social Technologies and Globe Business - Essay Example

Social Technologies and Globe Business Name: Course: Institution: Date: Social Technologies and Globe Business It is often said that at Facebook the user is not the customer they are the product. Discuss Business operations define a customer as an individual who pays to access services and products. This means that when an individual is not paying for a product or a service that he or she can access then the said individual is a product not a customer. Social media platforms such as Facebook operate to provide their users with free services (Lumban et al 2013, p. 43). This explains why about 95% of Facebook users access the service without any pay. The question that may be generated for this assumption is revolves around the source of finances that Facebook uses in maintaining its operations (Lumban et al 2013, p. 43). There have been claims that advertisements and other promotional initiatives by different companies on Facebook are the major sources of finance. Inasmuch as this assertion may be factual, it does not provide sufficient information that can be used to authenticate billions of dollars that Facebook generates from its services. This means that Facebook uses its users as products to be sold either directly or indirectly to companies, which seek to advertise or sell their products on the online platform (Beech 2015, p. 34). The product that Facebook possesses is personal data, which is derived from the users’ profiles. This make up part of an enormous database which when sold to advertisers can be used as a source of finances for Facebook and as a marketplace for the advertising companies (Treadaway & Smith 2012, p. 13). When advertisers receive the target group from Facebook user profiles, they are able to develop relations and identify specificities about which users to use as targets for specific products (Cambria et al, 2011, p. 13). The articles that an individual reads on Facebook, the website he or she likes and the video that are accessible on this platform are part of information stored in a massive database (Beech 2015, p. 44). Being a social networking website, Facebook has the ability to acquire information about their users. This information enables them to build even more detailed profile about the users (Smith 2011, p. 21). It is important to note that the databases build by Facebook are not part of a disconnected silos of information but a platform that this company uses to enhance its surveillance and information about a specific user, the most frequented sites, personal details and their likes and preferences (Cambria et al, 2011, p. 14). Other than the creation of a massive database, Facebook not only provides a platform for communication it is also a business platform used to sample different users in the form of target customers (Pride 2012, p. 290). Different organizations target individuals whose demographics vary in terms of age, location, gender and level of education among other aspects. For an individual to be subscribed in a social media site such as Facebook it is often a requirement to give personal details including these which are presumed to be private (Lynn 2014, p. 9). This information is often used in categorizing and differentiating potential clients for advertising agencies to target. On Facebook it is possible for an advertiser to develop a products or an ad that targets 35 year old women with an interest in hiking and live in a specific city. This is the kind of targeting that advertising agencies desire to engage in. it is more profitable in terms of its ability to sieve that target customers for a product or service selling company (Beech 2015, p. 60). There are companies that associate with social networking sites such as Facebook to engage in a process of selling users’ profiles. They include credit bureaus and direct marketing bureaus (Cambria et al, 2011, p. 10). The decision to become a user in Facebook for instance is an indication that one unknowingly agrees to give personal information. In return the individual user will always receive advertisements that are tailored to what the advertising company thinks the user might want to buy (Evans 2010, p. 18). The major question that must be asked in such a situation is the source of data that provided the advertiser with information about the likes and preferences of the user. Being a product of Facebook is derived from the understanding that the site provides free services, which sometimes contains some form of advertising. The advertisements are tailored to the user by the networking site due to its ability place a particular ad on pages with visitors that correspond to the advertisers’ request (Lynn 2014, p. 8). In addition, the user has an option of whether to respond or to decline the ad. Those who respond may choose to buy the product or access the service depending on the level of need for the advertisement (Ray 2013, p. 21). Those who choose not to buy are still beneficial to the advertiser because they possess knowledge of the products or service and this is part of the objective of the advertisers. The advertising company, through this process makes financial gains and at times it is much more than the money spent on the advert (Beech 2015, p. 65). This process also gives Facebook, some financial gains that enable it to continue and improving on its operations. The decision to make Facebook more attractive by introducing additional features is often meant to attract more users. This not only increases the database but also provides the advertising agencies with a larger platform of advertisement hence the possibility that of more profits from sales (Lynn 2014, p. 10). Whether a user's profile is sold to an advertising company of not, the aim of Facebook is to ensure that it generates profits from its operations. This means that the process of engaging in exchange of information is considered a private business operation. There are companies and countries that have developed strict laws to guard against the possibility of access to user profiles by unknown persons (Evans 2010, p. 12). In such countries it is most likely that the profiles of users will not be sold. The possible scenario in such a situation is that an advertising agency may request that an ad be shown to female visitors aged between 20 and 30 with a specific income level. When this is done with the aid of Facebook, it is possible to argue that the advertiser will be getting a glimpse of user’s profiles. An individual’s profile data is safe with the management at Facebook who use it for personal gains and as a source of income (Evans 2010, p. 15). Facebook is an online platform where individuals voluntarily agree to the terms and conditions that define the operations in the social networking site. This gives the management at Facebook the right to have access to individual profiles while maintaining high levels of confidentiality. The development of a database that groups the users in accordance with different demographic and personal attributes gives Facebook a pool of potential customers (Lon & David 2010, p. 14). Online advertisement involves numerous parties whose interactions provide a technique of tracking the activities of users online instead of selling their profiles. Tracking of user activities involve the process of monitoring every move that an individual makes on the web and collecting details on a table somewhere to augments that instance of an individual profile with a specific party (Trattner & Kappe 2012, p. 13). The decision of an individual to visit numerous website through Facebook facilitates the process of creating profiles in multiple sites. Facebook users from this perspective give information to other parties unknowingly hence making it possible for advertisers to sell their products (Trattner & Kappe 2012, p. 14). Facebook owns elaborate profiles of users other than just personal information. These include the sites that are frequently accessed and the interests of these individuals. This makes the social networking site a platform that allows for an easy ways of connecting advertisers with potential customers hence a source of revenue to the social networking site (Lynn 2014, p. 15). Is copyright an old fashioned idea in the age of social media? Discuss Technological advances in the form of social media have been considered as major contributors to the complication related to copyright protection in the current society. This is because social media enable an extremely easy and less expensive way of sharing information of products from different sources without any authorization (Hale 2012, p. 45). In addition, the drastic increase in the utilization of the internet in different regions across the world has also necessitated the ability of individual from different corners of the world to engage in a platform that guarantees immediate sharing of videos, books, articles and music without the permission of the owner of the authorities involved in intellectual protection (Thompson 2005, p. 41). Since late 1990s legislators in different parts of the world have been involved in a process of finding a balance between the use of the internet and the need to protect intellectual property without hampering the process of innovation and creativity in the society. This has led to the development of laws from different sources of government (Thompson 2005, p. 41). The main objective if copyright and any other form of intellectual property is to ensure the protection of the products, creative and innovative works of different authors from external interference. This not only provides a source of income to the innovators and owners of the products but it also guarantees to future innovators that their work is still protected by the law hence promotion creativity and the need to develop the society through innovative. Innovators, film creators, musician and authors often engage in processes that endeavor to improve on the wellbeing of the society as well as enhance their living conditions. Copyrights therefore provide a platform of protecting their work from hackers and these intending to gains from the works of other personalities (Hale 2012, p. 45). Inasmuch as the digital age provides different users with a platform of interaction it is also important that government and owners of social networking sites such as Facebook and You Tube among other players develop strategies and laws that protect personal work from the possibility of piracy. The development of copyright laws are also based on the understanding that social media is not exempt from the traditional copyright laws (Oliver et al 2009, p. 54). The social media is diverse and dynamic and it may be relatively complex to develop laws that govern all the possibilities of copyright infringement. This will include the illegality of uploading a picture onto the Facebook page of a company without the authorization of the author (Thompson 2005, p. 48). Due to the dynamic nature and the existence of some form of anarchy in social networking sites, it would be important for a company and the government to institute copyright infringement laws that guard against dubious piracy activities such as uploading pictures as an anonymous. Such techniques can be minimized through the development of procedures that outline the process of uploading pictures, videos, music or books from other sources. Informed consent should always dominate (Thorson & Duffy 2012, p. 102). An additional way by which copyright law can be used to avoid sanctions resulting from civil and criminal law for infringement of copyrights should be through developing an outline on the necessary rights for publication on social media. This would be realized if every company for instance was required to develop and enforce a social media policy (Thorson & Duffy 2012, p. 100). The challenge in the development of such policies is in the frequent changes that characterize activities and the types of social media sites that evolve. It is true that there is no single social media policy that can cover all the contingencies that may arise in using social media. However, it is possible for these policies to cover specific basics (Coine & Babbitt 2014, p.45). The relevance of copyright in the development of social media policies arises from the understanding that companies will have a significant advantage in the process of the actions that must be taken to ensure that it enforces its intellectual property rights. Prior to the evolution and prominence of social media, companies crafted monologues that guarded against the possibility of copyright infringement. This was especially through press releases and appearances by specific individuals designated as representatives of these companies. However, the introduction of social media as a means of communication has replaced monologues with conversations and additional methods of interaction. These conversations involve multiple personalities from within and outside an organization (Palfreyet al 2009, p. 60). In addition, these conversations occur in real-time and this creates the possibility that the company will have limited control on the content of the conversation and the personalities leading or contributing to a conversations. Such an open platform of conversation increases the legal and business rights related to the intellectual property of the company (Bahadur et al 2012, p. 32). Tailor made copyright laws would provide businesses with a technique of navigating the publicity in social media. This is because such laws would minimize the possibility that a company, its employees or the public will be engage in a process violating the confidential laws that define the organization (Bahadur et al 2012, p. 40). Copyright laws would provide companies with information on the privacy levels of different social media sites. In addition, they would also provide rules and procedures that govern social media advertising (Langlois 2014, p. 43). Copyright laws from this perspective would therefore inform the design of social networking sites considering that every the users of these networking sites will only operate on these sites according to the laws that govern the sites. Limiting the ability of users to download or upload unauthorized information can be considered as major contributor to the intellectual property protection. This is because the social media platforms will have laws and application that limit users on that which they can access (Thorson & Duffy 2012, p. 90). Copyrights define legal aspects in business. This is because they entail government enactments, which provide creators of original work with exclusive rights to their products. Through these laws the copyright holder is given the right to be credited for their works and devise methodologies that could ensure that the copyright holders benefit from their work. Social media can also be used in the promotion of contemporary copyright (Darrow & Ferrera 2007, p. 30). This is through popularizing the work of different authors and crediting them wherever necessary while at the same time ensuring that they profit from these works. The ability of authors to thrive in a socially networked world would require them to use all the available tools to popularize their work and reputation. This would entail the choice by companies of individuals to license their work in ways that encourage sharing (Arne 2013, p. 23). Sharing in this sense would entail the decision to download original works from designated websites at a fee while limiting the possibility of uploading it for free. This has the potential of providing the author of any creative work with visibility that surpasses the ability of regular market channels. This is an indication that authors of any form of creative work must be open to intellectual property protection that enhances and is fit for the purpose of a network economy (Darrow & Ferrera 2007, p. 34). It is only through such a process that different elements of intellectual property can be merged with contemporary marketing platforms such as social media. Inasmuch as social media may have the liberties and the anarchy in terms of laws governing operations, it is possible for government and the relevant owners of these sites to device methodologies of developing copyright laws that are in agreement with the marketing requirements of these platforms to increase the possibility that product and services will reach the intended consumers (Arne 2013, p. 23). References Arne, Stein. 2013. 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