Free Essay Example: Facebook's Controversial Privacy Policies and Impact on Emotions

Introduction

Facebook has faced intense criticism from consumers as well as other organizations due to its controversial privacy policies, where it shared its users’ information with the Fusion GPS, which aimed at interfering with the 2016 elections. In a survey published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), Facebook showed the influence of social media in the process of transferring emotional states from one user to the other through the news feed (Kramer et al. 2014).

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The company wanted to establish how people would respond to various changes in negative and positive posts. It was found that individuals usually play an indispensable role in the generation of positive reactions. Besides, negative expressions would trigger adverse reactions from the users. This implies that emotions from friends in social media influence the users’ emotions directly hence emotional contagions. According to Sandra Collins, Facebook was unethical in conducting this survey as the company did not get informed consent from the users and did not allow the subjects to opt-out (Kramer et al. 2014).

Responding to the 2014 Research Situation

Facebook should have made a swift response concerning the situation to avoid the rising of further ethical and business issues. First, the firm should have apologized to the users to win the customers’ trust regarding their personal information. It should have acknowledged that an error occurred instead of claiming that it did nothing wrong as it was working under its terms of service. As a company that values its users' security seriously, Facebook should have revised its privacy policies to ensure they are ethical and are focused on customer’s welfare; this would help the company restore its ideal image and avoid subsequent violations of the privacy policies.

Decision-Making Strategies

In order to win the customer’s loyalty, Facebook should have acknowledged and owned up the mistake. The company should also not promise the users to conduct such a survey; this is because the corporate world is rapidly transforming; as such, it may require psychological responses in the future. However, as pointed by Sandra Collins, the company should promise the consumers that in case the need to carry out psychological research arises in the future, it will inform them, ensure all users are aware of the company’s intention, and get consent from the target group. Furthermore, the company should promise the users that subjects not interested and are unwilling to be involved in the survey will not be included. Most of the time, surveys tend to expose respondents’ personal details; therefore, the company should assure the users about the security of their details, which will not be used by any third party for its financial advantage (Selinger & Hartzog 206).

Facebook should not go ahead and ban studies meant to manipulate the users’ response; rather, it should observe the ethical issues and laws and regulations about user privacy policies. Generally, the company generates a lot of revenue from users and advertising companies by selling the user data to these companies. This raises dilemma issues, because users entrust the company with their personal information while businesses depend on this information to target their adverts to specific groups in order to sustain their operations and surpass their rivals. Therefore, instead of burning these types of surveys in the future, Facebook should consider allowing the users to provide information that should be shared with the party without hurting them.

Processes or Structures to Establish

As a result of market demand for users’ information, Facebook might encounter similar problems in the future hence tarnish its image and likely lose customers. Therefore, to avoid the situation re-occurring, Facebook should revise its privacy policies to include policies that ensure the protection of users’ personal data. In addition, Facebook should acknowledge to the users when such ethical mistakes arise and apologize or compensate them when necessary (Nyoni & Velempini 2018). Moreover, Facebook should observe the laid corporate laws on regulations to avoid possible suits for breach of the laws regarding user rights. These strategies will ensure the company has balanced revenue optimization and user privacy.

Additionally, to address users' expectations concerning their privacy, Facebook should consider desisting from sharing or selling users’ information about religious or political affiliations to the companies as some of these companies may use the data gained to spread malicious information about certain segments hence trigger violence or adversely affect users psychologically (Isaak & Hanna 2018). The company should also put stiff rules and consider signing agreements with the companies that it shares users' information to ensure the data is not used for malevolent purposes. Facebook should also limit the information it sells to users, such as their likes, comments, posts, among others, especially with mobile apps. It is also ideal for Facebook to optimize certain steps used by mobile applications to prevent them from extracting confidential information, which they may use for unethical benefits.

Conclusion

The Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks survey undoubtedly manipulated the content of many Facebook users’ news feeds with the aim of bringing emotional changes. The survey met ethical criticisms concerning the informed consent and exposure of users' private information.

References

Kramer, A. D., Guillory, J. E., & Hancock, J. T. (2014). Experimental evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(24), 8788-8790.

Isaak, J., & Hanna, M. J. (2018). User data privacy: Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and privacy protection. Computer, 51(8), 56-59.

Nyoni, P., & Velempini, M. (2018). Privacy and user awareness on Facebook. South African Journal of Science, 114(5-6), 1-5.

Selinger, E., & Hartzog, W. (2016). Facebook’s emotional contagion study and the ethical problem of co-opted identity in mediated environments where users lack control. Research Ethics, 12(1), 35-43.