Sunday, April 13, 2014

Assignment #10


It's not Always Nice to Share

  • Why was Beacon created? Was it ethical to ask to “opt out” rather than “opt in” to the program?

Beacon was created to improve the ways that people could share information on facebook. The company opted to use Beacon as an “opt out” feature in case there were people that “forgot” to share information.
Despite the intention of help people to improve their online network experience, facebook “forgot” that its users also like to keep some things private. It was not and ethical move from the company, also they did not take action promlty to fix their mistake.
The “Opt in” option is appropriate for an app that truly affect the user's private information. This option also makes the consumers conscious about how much information they are willing to share and how.


  • Think of a purchase you have recently made that you would not want shared with your friends. How would you feel about a site that did so without your permission ?

I personally don't share information about myself or about what I do on facebook. My profile is just a bunch of cat's pictures and memes. I use facebook to look what other people are doing. I lost my interest in facebook since they came up with all kinds of features to track what people are do, where and with who, simply because there is (believe it or not) a lot of people that does not like to “share” and because of that Facebook could have done a better job thinking about making beacon of a “opt in” application.
Making public what a person does on the web without his permission is a violation to his privacy.Whoever feels like “sharing” should do it however they want and without the determination of an application.


  • Did Facebook's missteps with Beacon amount to a poor business decision, or do you think that it rose to the level of being unethical?

I think Facebook did not care about its users. The company knew about what it was getting into as well as the considered impact that Beacon would make to company's revenue.
As a big company, Facebook counts with a variety of assistance in each of its business, and theywere aware ( as expertises ) of the proportions of introduccion Beacon.

Another sign that Facebook really wanted to keep Beacon alive was the fact that Facebook took very long to fix the problem, perhaps the company was waiting for its users to give up and accept Beacon.

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