Maybe, We Should Be Grateful for Facebook Privacy Scandal
Social media has been a natural part of our life and has brought a huge impact on our life. There are 7.7 billion people on Earth, but there are 2.41 billion active users on Facebook, 31% of the population. Many people have put their own information on there for sharing. The purpose is totally understandable. However, when people outside of our trusted friends purposely collect your data and use them on business. We are all aware of the Facebook data privacy scandal which went viral in 2016. Even though we are still not certain how much impact that was on the U.S. 2016 election with the data Cambridge Analytics acquired from Facebook, we, as a portion of internet users, should start creating regulation for the internet.
To start, I want to address why we should have regulations on the internet with two points: the internet bully and internet privacy. We all have seen, heard, even been bullied in our life. Now, it’s not just a problem in school but online too. According to the report, there are over 25% of adolescents or teenagers being bullied through their phones or the internet. We all know bully has been a critical issue among teenagers in school. “Thanks” to the internet, now bulliers can keep on doing it outside of school. I know it’s quite hard to create regulation for that. There are definitely ways to prevent it from happening. Not only schools can make regulations for that, but the government can do the same and work with schools. A nice example would be that a school creates regulations based on government regulations, so when there’s a bully, it’s a legal issue. In regard to punishments, I think the regulations have to cover a lot of things, but not the freedom of speech. The purpose of this is that Americans cannot violate the First Amendment. However, at the same time, we should let internet users know when they cross the line, the consequence is seriously huge.
Internet privacy has been another issue in the past years. I believe that most internet users are aware of their information being used but, like taxes that are not used properly, people don’t care much about it because it is an underground thing. We don’t see it; we don’t care. This kind of reaction tends to be like early-stage cancer. When we know it exists, it’s too late. The Facebook data privacy scandal totally explains this. What governments should do with regulation is to tell companies like Facebook that, as we click “agree” for sharing about our profile, it shouldn’t be everything about us. For example, when I agree with terms on Facebook as I try to use it as a quick registration for whatever, the access on my Facebook should just be my name, email account, contacts or friends on Facebook, and that’s it. There’s no need for them to know my habits, life preferences, religion, daily posts or even photos. The access to this information doesn’t benefit at all, but app developers make it as permission for me to use it. I would say governments should totally make regulations against it and promote the problem. Governments need to let people the risks behind the “agree” button while making relative regulations to slowly stop Facebook and app developers from doing it by fining with a serious amount.
As Libra currency released deadline is getting close, about a year from now, not just Facebook has a lot of things to work on, governments also need to discuss with Facebook to see what the best regulations are for the online currency. It’s never too late to set rules for people. It may take time for people to adjust but the world will be better and safer with regulations.
It’s really interesting to see how governments and Facebook will do in the future.
Wish us luck!
TC
