Tom Upton’s Blog

Essay One

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Why do online companies want our data? Explain some of the key privacy issues facing internet users and providers.

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Social networking is an increasingly popular way for people to stay in contact; it is possible to share photos, message people and leave “wall posts”, to name just a few activities. Facebook has over 70 million active users[i] and is the 7^th most visited site on the internet[ii], with MySpace behind it as the second most popular social networking site[iii]. Bebo lags behind as the 108^th most visited site globally[iv]. Looking at the statistics for the United Kingdom, you see that Facebook is again the most popular of the three sites, while MySpace is second most popular site for social networking as the 11^th most visited and Bebo is right after at number 12[v]. This shows how popular social networking is; only YouTube and the four major search engines (Google UK, Yahoo, Microsoft Live and Google) are more popular than Facebook in the UK.

A big concern with social networking sites is user’s privacy. When signing up to sites like Facebook, users provide personal information including full names, addresses, a date of birth and email addresses. In addition, the website also collects personal information when users visit the site including ISP’s name, web browser information, IP addresses and times visited. This information gives the site the ability to build a profile of visitors, allowing them to sell targeted advertising to groups or individuals. This is an advantage for advertisers as they know exactly who is viewing their adverts and therefore, whether their marketing is effective, however this may be disadvantageous for users. Users are been tracked when they use the website and their data is being sold to third parties for the website to gain profit. Facebook’s targeted advertising scheme has come under criticism from the charity ‘Credit Action’ warning that the advertising are offering inexpensive loans to those with poor credit ratings, breaking advertising regulations due to the adverts not giving full details of interest rates.

Targeted advertising has recently been discussed by European Union regulators due to concerns about invasion of privacy[vi]. The issue was seen as so serious that previous to this the European Commission took action by cutting the length of time search engines like Google are allowed to keep search data, from eighteen months to six months and recommended in Article 29 of the “Working Party” report[vii]. This is advantageous for uses of the internet because it means that they are less prone to threats such as identity fraud, while one could argue that having search data kept for long periods of time for review is invading the privacy of individuals.

When signing up to Facebook it is mandatory to agree to their privacy and terms and conditions stipulations. “By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant [...] the Company an irrevocable [...] worldwide license to use [...] any User Content for any purpose.” By agreeing to this stipulation users are allowing “the company” to use content which including “photos, profiles (including names, images, and likenesses), messages, notes, text, information, music, video, advertisements, listings, and other content” in any manner they wish.

I myself have a Facebook account and prior to signing up I, like most other 70 million members, neglected to read the terms and conditions. Facebook is now the most used photo sharing application on the web[viii] affording them access to a vast library of user’s images. For example, A user can post a photo on the site and the company can use them to promote their business or even sell them anywhere in the world because the user has consented to these terms on signing up.

There has been recent controversy due to the fact that the internet service providers BT, Virgin Media and Carphone Warehouse all announced that they would be introducing ‘Phorm’ targeted advertising system. These ISP’s account for approximately 70% of all UK internet connections[ix], causing a lot of concern due to Phorm being “opt-out” system, meaning that all of the pages viewed will be assessed by the Phorm system so that it can send targeted adverts to users unless they have set a cookie in their browser telling the system to opt-out. The Foundation for Information Policy Research have suggested to the Information Commissioners Office that Phorm is illegal under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (2000)[x]. The Information Commissioners Office suggests that the system should be “opt-in”[xi], otherwise it would be breaching European data protection laws, yet they have said the matter is that of the Home Office and not the ICO. This is a negative aspect for customers of BT, Carphone Warehouse and Virgin Media as all of their traffic will be inspected, which one could argue is an invasion of privacy, even thought Phorm claims it does not keep any personally identifiable data.

There is a growing concern and awareness surrounding what is done with personal data. No better illustration can be found when assessing the reaction to the news that the government have lost numerous CD’s with more than 25 million peoples personal data[xii], yet conversely large numbers of people prepared to divulge personal information when signing up to websites like Facebook and MySpace. In the recent study “Switched On”[xiii] by the Ofcom Consumer Panel it was found that people were concerned what could happen with their data but did not know who could use it or for what purposes. It was also found that the same people had little idea of the laws in place to protect their data. One could argue that if individuals are prepared to share data using sites like Facebook then they should be aware that there are inherent risks involved of the information disclosed being misappropriated.

Data is very precious, to both users and companies on the internet. People are happy to distribute their information without the due care and attention on sites like Facebook and MySpace while ISP’s are introducing methods to assess the content their users view, meaning these companies become very valuable resources for marketing companies who require users data to sell products and services to them.

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