What Facebook Needs to Decide and the Moral Problems it Faces
News has just become public: Cambridge Analytica used Facebook users’ data without their awareness to try influencing them during the 2016 Presidential campaign. U.S. citizens, the Congress, and Facebook’s Board of Directors are alarmed, demanding an explanation of how to prevent the same mistake from recurring. The Chief Executive Officer, Mark Zuckerberg, schedules a meeting with the Director of Business Development, Director of Marketing, and Director of Information Security to discuss what happened. Assume that you are one of these directors and that you will meet with the other two directors. Before the meeting, everyone should review the background materials. During the meeting, each group member should choose a role. Then the group should answer the questions below, drawing from at least two sources not provided by the instructor. Incorporate at least one principle from the Social Media Club’s code of conduct and any other relevant values. Also, include any facts, citing them.
1. What does Facebook need to decide?
2. What are the one or more moral problems?
3. How are factors internal to Facebook contributing to the one or more problems? Provide enough of an explanation to imply one or more solutions to the problem (without naming the solutions).
4. How are factors external to Facebook contributing to the one or more problems? Provide enough of an explanation to imply one or more solutions to the problem (without naming the solutions).
Reading:
The following video and readings provide the background information that will help the members of your group discuss the factors that contributed to users’ loss of privacy through Facebook. The group activity will draw from these materials, so I recommend that you review the related questions before going through the materials.
*Social Media Club. (2018). Social media club professional code of ethics. Retrieved from https://socialmediaclub(dot)org/blog/from-the-clubhouse/social-media-club-professional-code-of-ethics (read all 3 pages)
*Cadwalladr, C. (2018). Cambridge Analytica whistleblower: 'We spent $1m harvesting millions of Facebook profiles' [Online video]. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www(dot)theguardian(dot)com/uk-news/video/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-whistleblower-we-spent-1m-harvesting-millions-of-facebook-profiles-video (watch all 13:04)
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Protecting data has become critical to prevent breaches. When data reaches unitized third parties, it can have adverse effects on people. Confidential data can be misused and harm users. News that Cambridge Analytica used Facebook users’ data to manipulate the outcome of the 2016 US Presidential elections. The revelation not only demonstrated Facebook recklessness on its users’ data, but shows that voters can be influenced, which works against democracy. This essay shows what Facebook needs to decide and the moral problem facing it.
Facebook needs to decide how to communicate to the public concerning the data breach. On the one hand, the company needs to demonstrate its willingness to establish the allegations that data from its users was used without consent elections. A data breach is a serious issue considering the harm that it can cause to the people (Renna, 2019). In particular, the data breach was meant to influence the outcome of the US Presidential elections, which threatened democracy. Facebook should come clean on its participation in allowing third parties to use personal data without authorization. While the company may not have directly given the users’ data, it failed to keep the data secure, hence allowing Cambridge Analytica to harvest the data and sell it to political campaigns.
On the one hand, when the company acknowledges the issue, it will assist in putting measures in ensuring the same does not happen in the future. At the same time, this will also restore confidence in the company that it is willing to make changes to protect users’ data. On the other hand, accepting liability may subject Facebook to sharp criticism. The public can view Facebook as reckless because of failing to protect users from data mining by third-party apps. This means that the company may lose user...
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