The war on Facebook: privacy on social networks

摘要

In the past seven years, Facebook has been constantly reviewing its privacy policy, with regards to the information it shares about its users and the information users share online. Like in any social network, Facebook users are at great risk when using the platform. This paper will analyse Facebook's 'Privacy' settings and the implications to its users. It will depict problems with the platform, specifically privacy options that were eliminated. The paper will also analyse the legal implications of deficient privacy policies in the social network business model (which thrives on 'connections'). It will also provide recommendations for CEO Mark Zuckerberg regarding changes to the privacy settings and the visibility of these settings on his site. There have been various attempts to regulate internet privacy through complaints against Facebook, both in Canada and the USA. The current regulatory framework for the social network is inadequate and the recommendations put forth in this paper are needed to address an important lacuna in this regulatory area of privacy online.