At the height of the dotcom boom in late 1990s, many businesses were created using the web technology as their backbone. With the World Wide Web (WWW) the world became borderless, information can be shared to other people in just a matter of seconds. One of the successful business who use the power of the web is Facebook, it is social networking sites launched in February 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg from a mere idea of sharing information and being connected with fellow computer students in Harvard it grows to be a billion dollar company with projected gross revenue of $1 Billion (P45 Billion) this year. Making Mark a certified billionaire at the age of 26.
In the next few weeks, Facebook will officially reached its 500 millionth virtual citizen, and it would the third largest population next to China (1.3B) and India (1.1B), with US ranking fourth at 309M. In just six years in operation, the Facebook Republic hit us by storm and this is the biggest thing that happened in the 21st century. There were many web superpowers: Goggle helps us search out information, YouTube keep us entertained and different social networking sites like twitter, Facebook, Friendster and myspace, but it is only Facebook that touched lives and be connected – it makes us smile, exchanges happy thoughts and memoirs.
The Facebook Citizens are comfortable sharing their information and pictures on line, and the data they are providing feeds bottom line – meaning it can be shared endless for advertising and referral marketing. This is where facebook earned, although it is free to the users these information that citizens upload will become the data mine of these companies. According to Time Magazine, Facebook flashed more than 176 billion banner advertisement in the first three months of this year or 58 billion a month with a total of 700 billion a year (let say $1 per ad, its $700M). This is big moneymaking company.
The business model of Facebook is very good, they are earning on the information being shared by its citizen. With a simple clicking “like” button, it transform information useful to advertisers per demographic. Anyone over the age of 13 (legally) can become a Facebook users.
In the article of Ronald Gonzales in The Philippine Star, he mentioned that aside from creating new avenues to generate revenue we are also leaking corporate and personal information that pose potential problem for there are some updates “over-share”. This is virtual melting pot where privacy and security can be sacrificed.
Open your favorite social network site and it’s difficult to miss that people already surrendered a tremendous amount of personal information online. Creating a person’s profile from online resources is no longer the area of espionage and investigation bureaus. A 12-year- old can put together a dossier on a company CEO in the time it takes to drink a can of soda. Some company banned the use of Facebook during office hours to discourage employees wasting time.
“But I only allow people I know to access my data,” you might say of these networking sites; but nobody really checks these sites’ privacy policies. Facebook has, what the Electronic Frontier Foundation describes as an “eroding privacy policy” that already makes public, by default, certain personal information. This information, in turn, is made available to Facebook’s partners for advertising. Twitter also shares personal identifiable information with its business associates.
Yes, you were careful not to share your information with people you do not know and went through the pain of customizing your privacy settings; but the more popular social network sites already decided to whom your information can be made available. Aside from the friends of friends of friends, search engines, and other internet crawlers, you also share your personal information with Web applications and other sites that are connected to your social network site.
Security must be our top priority, a determine attacker will know you, your family and friends – thanks to the on-line photo sharing. They will know the house lay-out, how many dogs you have and even your schedule (Off to Boracay for a weekend with family). Most security professionals will agree that if you don’t want anybody to know something about it then don’t post it on-line. Chances are, information will find its way to the public domain. I am not saying to close down your Facebook or twitter account, but be aware of the dangers exposing personal and company information on the internet and how easy it is to leak out these data.
Remember when the President Arroyo’s brother-in-law questioned regarding the Jose Pidal Account, your honor I am entitled to Right to Privacy. This will hold through on the net by not sharing information on the World Wide Web (WWW).
Points of Discussion:
1. How important is your privacy?
2. What is your position in this case?
3. Discuss the Business Model of Facebook? What are your thoughts about it?
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