Political Economy of Privacy of Facebook - Essay Example

Political Economy of Privacy of Facebook Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code & Name: Date of Submission: Political Economy of Privacy of Facebook Over the recent times, the internet has become a very important communication and business tool. One of the major activities on the internet is advertising and social networking. The ethics and operations of social sites have come under scrutiny in the recent past. This is due to the political economy of privacy on the social site. Facebook is one of the biggest social networks on the globe; in fact it is the largest among the numerous social networks on the internet. Privacy of Facebook’s users has been and still remains to be a very contentious issue. This is due to the manipulations on the private data of the users which are done by the Facebook owners. Just as many others social sites, Facebook is free for use by anyone as long as one is connected to it via the internet. So how does Facebook make its revenues and profits? It is via advertising and using the users’ data for research and advertising purposes (Fuchs, 2012, p.139). In so doing, the Facebook owners are able to create a political economy at the expense of the privacy of the users. With the political economy debate on the privacy on Facebook, there are issues other issues to do with capitalisms and Marxism. The following essay will discuss the political economy of privacy of Facebook, Facebook and Marxism and Facebook and capitalism. The political economy of Facebook is based on the privacy of Facebook’s users. Ideally, a political economy is supposed to create surplus hence profits and class (Fuchs, 2012, p.143). With respect to Facebook, the surplus value and class is gotten after Facebook uses the user’s data for advertising hence breaching their privacy and also monitoring their browsing patterns for the purposes of research, marketing and advertising (Netchitailova, 2012, p.683). In so doing, Facebook is able to create a political economy on the basis of the privacy of its users. There are reports that Facebook conducts surveillance on the browsing patterns of its users; the things they comment on, the pages they like, the information they share among other activities that the users make on Facebook. This information may seem useless but on the hands of a marketer, it is very important data which is certain to translate to a great marketing strategy. This is basically what Facebook does; it sells the data to interested organizations. In so doing, Facebook is able to create a surplus value since it creates value from the sale of the private browsing data of the users. Facebook also makes private data available to third parties, for instance the private information on the profiles of the users. These two strategies by Facebook are the basis of their political economy. For this reason, the economy is based on the privacy of the users; which is unethical. The political economy of privacy on Facebook has sparked a lot of discussions in the market. One of the discussions is about the users of Facebook being products as opposed to customers (Hoffman, 2012, p.1). It would be true to state that this statement is true since the Facebook banks on the numbers of users, their activities on the social site and their private data. The three elements are their products for sale to the advertisers. This explains the reason as to why Facebook uses targeted advertising. This is due to the reason that the advertisers know what a user is most likely to be looking for or what might he/she might be in need off. As per the definitions and confines of a political economy, the creation of surplus value and class is supposed to occur. This is the same case with Facebook. As indicated above, the surplus value is gotten when Facebook sells the private browsing patterns, private data and the large number of its users to business organizations (Netchitailova, 2012, p.683). With the political economy, class is created in the sense that Facebook’s owners are able to make big profits and so do the advertisers who use Facebook for advertising purposes. The users of Facebook are on the low class since they are products/ producers and Facebook owners and business organizations are on the upper class. With the political economy, there is a lot of exploitation of Facebook’s users. This is due to that fact that their privacy is interfered with when their personal data is availed to third part persons, a fact that is not made aware to them when they join Facebook. Another contentious issue with respect to the political economy of Privacy on Facebook is its link with capitalism. Capitalism is an economic policy which upholds individual / private wealth accumulation and ownership. In a capitalist economy, people go out of their ways to ensure that they make the best out of a situation; which is precisely what Facebook’s political economy is based on. First of all, Facebook surveys personal lives of its users for the purpose of wealth creation (Fuchs, 2012, p.147). Facebook provides its services to its users for free, but deep down in its objectives, it has a capitalist intention of making money out of its users. As indicated earlier, Facebook trades in the personal data & web activities and the large number of Facebook users. In so doing the company is able to make money out of it since it accumulates capital from this as it is seen in its advertising services and the recent Initial Public Offer which was highly valued. As a result of this, Facebook offers targeted advertising in that the advertisers have a target audience on Facebook which is evaluated on the basis of the personal data that Facebook collects from its users. Target advertising on Facebook is also another indicator of the capitalist notion behind Facebook. This is due to the fact that the users do not have a choice as to which information/ advertisements are made accessible to them. The political economy of privacy on Facebook is taunting. This is due to what Facebook does to a surplus value, the unethical trading of its users’ privacy. With respect to surplus value, Marxian theory holds that a surplus value is created when an individual undertakes a revenue generating activity. According to Marx, a balanced market is one in which labour is paid for. However, this is not the case with Facebook. As indicated earlier, the activities of Facebook’s users on the social site are products for sale on the side of the company (Hoffman, 2012, p.1). Facebook gets the surplus value from both its workers who include programmers, administrators and management and its users (Fuchs, 2012, p.144). In fact, its users are the main source of its surplus value. When Facebook’s users devote their time to update status, like pages, upload files, create pages among other activities on Facebook, their intentions are not to create surplus value. However, Facebook creates a surplus value when it makes its users private data a commodity and consequently trading with it (Zuckerberg, 2011). For this reason, as per the Marxian theory, the Facebook’s users should be paid for their work. This is due to the fact that Facebook is reliant on the activities of its users to create a surplus value. The more the user’s activities, the more the users use the social site and the larger the number of users, the more the products Facebook has to offer for trade. Since the users are the products to Facebook, they should be compensated for their work on Facebook, which is not the case as at now. In conclusion, it can be seen from the essay that economical prowess of Facebook is based on a rather contentious ground. This is due to the fact that it is a political economy which is based on the privacy of its users. From the essay, it is clear that Facebook views its users as products as opposed to customers as many people would tend to think. This has been a very contentious debate in the recent past. Facebook does a surveillance of the activities of its users on the social site. With the data collect as a result of this, the private details of its users and the large user base, Facebook has a range of products which it uses to get surplus value. From the essay, it has been seen that Facebook has a predominant capitalist intention behind its activities. This is due to the fact that it uses broach methods of trade; monitoring personal lives without the consent of the individual being monitored and then using this data as a commodity for sale to marketers. This explains why there is targeted advertising in Facebook since Facebook has adequate information of the behaviors, needs and intentions of each of its users. Lastly, from the essay, it is clear that Facebook does not go along with the Marxian theory which holds that an individual should be earn from an activity which generates a surplus value. This is not the case with Facebook since the users create the ‘product’ by being active on Facebook, hence investing a great deal of time on the social site but are not paid for their efforts. Summing up, it is clear from the essay that the political economy of Facebook is based on the privacy of its users. References Fuchs, C., 2012.The Political Economy of Privacy on Facebook, Television New Media , Vol. 13,no.1, pp. 139-159. Hoffman, C, 2012. You Are the Product, Not The Client: The Personal Data Economy Explained, Viewed on 1st September < http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/product-client-personal-data-economy-explained/> Netchitailova, E., 2012. Facebook as a Surveillance Tool: From the Perspective of the User, Triple C Journal, Vol. 10, no. 2, 683-691 Zuckerberg, M, 2011. Inside Facebook 2011, [Television programme], BBC world news. Read More