Last Friday, I had the chance to listen to Eben Moglen talking about law in times of Web 2.0. While his presentation was very technical at times, he raised some interesting points I have previously been thinking about. He addressed Facebook and how intertwined we are with social media these days. Facebook collects an abundance of information about it’s users, just like credit card companies can profile their customers by finding patterns in their purchases. Now, while this point might seem unrelated to copyright at this point, I still think our personal copyright, also referred to as privacy is infringed upon. Do I want some mid twenty Ivy school grad in California to know that I think certain girls that my facebook profile saves as “Friends” are attractive, because I watch their pictures at times? Do I want someone else to read my mind?
Frankly, I don’t. And I don’t think anybody else wants to. But how many users are aware of how open they are to be spied on? Did you ever wonder, why the advertisements on the right hand site of facebook seem to be tailored to your profile ( and I should add, that I don’t want to meet cute girls in my city online, nor do I need a free Ipad or am bored in New York City)? Who protects personal copyright, if we aren’t doing so ourselves?
While Mr. Moglen’s statement that ” Mr Zuckerberg richly deserves bankruptcy might” be slightly humorous and slightly a little to far fetched, I fully agree with his statement, that ” It would be easier if people would know what privacy is”. Now, I am not afraid of a total “Big Brother” control scenario happening any time soon, although there are a lot of surveillance cameras around.
However, as being interested in my own privacy, I think it is important to be aware of how often companies collect data about the population and how they try to stimulate consumption more and more. Especially eduacted young people like (some) college students, should watch those activities just as carefully, as Facebook watches and analyzes it’s users, since I am almost sure, that the data collected by Facebook, generally doesn’t serve “the progress of science and the useful arts”.
What do you as an educated, young person think about your personal copyright?
Some Rights Reserved
Privacy was a big subject in my media and identity class. It might be surprising what you find when you google yourself, (or when a potential employer does) when you use social media sites. But just to comment on facebook, not only do you give companies access to all of your personal information when you download an application, but all of your friends too, pictures, birthdays and all. I posted a link to delicious dealing with some privacy risks to your “personal copyright”
Hmmm… the Internet is a vast “place” in which we leave our virtual footprint everytime we explore, visit websites, purchase an “item” or join a soical network. So, while Facebook is compiling some “personal” information about it’s users and using it for target ads, those users are members by choice, and probably are not doing anything that many other social networking sites (even though less popular) are not doing in order to capitalize.However, in terms of copyright, I wonder if as voluntary network members, we are protected by “copyright” infringement laws…or are all of those rights signed away as soon as we “agree” to the site’s terms and conditions.