Zuckerberg family photo leaked

Facebook Troubles with User Privacy

On Christmas 2012, Randi Zuckerberg posted a photo of her family to her private Facebook page. Unfortunately, the privacy settings on Facebook can confuse even the company’s top executives. Randi, the sister of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and a former senior Facebook executive, soon found that her photo had leaked to the general public and had been tweeted to thousands of people. Randi tweeted Callie Schweitzer, Director of Marketing at VOX Media, who had first posted the photo to Twitter: “Not sure where you got this photo. I posted it to friends only on FB. You reposting it to Twitter is way uncool.”

This incident came only 11 days after Facebook had released new privacy controls meant to help Facebook users understand who is able to see the content they post. A new shortcuts toolbar allowed users to control “Who can see my stuff” without having to go to a new page. The new release also offered in-product education. Messages explained how content that users hide in their timelines could still appear in their news feed and on other pages. Evidently, these controls did not go far enough to protect Randi Zuckerberg’s privacy.

In fact, since Facebook was launched, it has had ongoing issues with addressing the privacy concerns of its users. In late 2011, Facebook settled a suit filed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that charged Facebook with deceiving its customers about privacy issues since 2009. (The FTC regulates companies that take credit card information from consumers.) Facebook claimed that it would not share personal information with advertisers, that third-party applications would only be given the information they needed to function properly, that no one could access photos or videos from deleted accounts, and—perhaps most relevant to Randi Zuckerberg’s experience—that information posted to an individual’s Friends List would remain private. The FTC found that the company had not delivered on any of these claims. As part of the settlement, Facebook agreed to stop these practices until they had a better disclaimer and opt-out procedure. Mark Zuckerberg also issued a statement saying that, over the course of the previous 18 months, Facebook had introduced 20 new tools to address these and other privacy related concerns.

However, by August 2012, the FTC had launched a new investigation into Facebook privacy practices. Facebook had partnered with Datalogix—a company that collects credit card purchasing information, such as where users are shopping and what they buy. Facebook users were included in Datalogix advertising research although they were not informed of this. Moreover, if Facebook users did, in fact, find out about the use of their private data, they could only opt out of the research by going to the Datalogix homepage.

Facebook has also had privacy problems arise with its subsidiaries. In September 2012, Facebook acquired Instagram, a social media application that allows users to upload photos for long-term storage and sharing. Instagram boasted a user-base of 100 million users. On December 17, 2012, Instagram posted a privacy notice claiming the right to sell all photographs posted to its site without compensation to the user. The company further claimed that it could sell any other metadata associated with the photo, such as usernames, gender, addresses, mobile phone number, and email addresses—all information users were required to provide when setting up an account. Instagram asked users who did not agree with the notice to remove their accounts within a few weeks. The new policy would go into effect for all users who accessed their accounts after January 19, 2013.

The announcement garnered a great deal of public resentment. On December 18, 2012, Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom clarified that, despite the notice, the company had no current plans to sell users’ photos. He explained that the company would be redrafting the privacy notice. In the meantime, competitors like Flickr have picked up a larger market share as a result of Instagram’s privacy misstep.89

Facebook is a powerful tool for communicating and reconnecting with friends and family. The service it provides is so valuable that users continue to flock to it. However, with every step forward, Facebook seems to take one or two steps backward in its protection of user privacy. Whether at the hands of the FTC or the competition, Facebook will no doubt continue to face repercussions for its decisions.

Although Randi Zuckerberg may have blamed Callie Schweitzer for poor online manners, it is likely that most of the billion Facebook users would prefer to rely on some mechanism beyond social media etiquette to protect their photographs and private information.

Discussion Questions

1. Do you think that Facebook or careless, uninformed users should be held responsible for privacy issues related to using Facebook? Explain.