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Unethical Data Mining and Facebook Discussion Questions

 

I’m working on a management discussion question and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.

1.Do you agree or disagree that Facebook has the right to do whatever it wants with the data its 1.5 billion users post on its site?  (1-2 paragraphs)

2. What can individuals do to protect themselves from their data being tracked?  (1 paragraph)

Mining large amounts of data can create a number of benefits for business, society, and governments, but it can also create a number of ethical questions surrounding an invasion of privacy or misuse of information. Facebook recently came under fire for its data-mining practices as it followed 700,000 accounts to determine whether posts with highly emotional content are more contagious. The study concluded that highly emotional texts are contagious, just as high emotions are among people relating in person. Highly emotional positive posts received multiple positive replies, whereas highly emotional negative posts received multiple negative replies. Although the study seems rather innocent, many Facebook users were outraged; they felt the study was an invasion of privacy because the 700,000 accounts had no idea Facebook was mining their posts.

As a Facebook user, you willingly consent that Facebook owns every bit and byte of data you post, and once you press submit, Facebook can do whatever it wants with your data. 

Listen or Read the Forbes story:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2021/…