Since the very beginning of social networks, the implied contract between the users and the social media company was about personal information. The users (all of us) trade our personal information with the social network in return for the benefits of the service — and for the first time we all benefit by having rich and instant contact with our own network of friends and family. This model stands in contrast with traditional advertising in one fundamental way. In traditional advertising, the advertiser positions a message that is consumed by the users themselves in the form of their time and attention. However, in a social media context, when we share our personal information, we are also allowing the social network to enable advertisers to target those within our personal networks with advertisements and messages.
Since the beginning of Facebook, the various ways that it collects and shares our personal information have been purposely obscure. Facebook’s privacy settings have, in my view, been made continually more granular to the point where they are nearly incomprehensible. And yet, so long as nobody was harmed, this all worked well for everyone. As we are seeing now, though, when misuse becomes public knowledge, the backlash against this has caused Facebook to come clean about how it manages personal information, as outlined in this recent article in The New York Times. Read the Article