Privacy
Wednesday, September 9, 2009 by Susie Lee
It seems to me that privacy is both increased and decreased on social networking sites. On the one hand, personal privacy is top priority and one will use many ways to preserve one’s own privacy, including at the cost of other’s privacy. Two of the major social networking sites, Facebook and Myspace, both have “applications” that allow one to see who has visited their site, the frequency of their visits, and some even provide the visitor’s ip address.
On Myspace one of the various “tracking” devices available is whoisonmyspace. This application allows one to see the picture of the visitor, the visited date and time, and the visitor’s name. However, because of a voluminous amount of complaints, the application is no longer available, and Myspace either bans or deletes users with tracking applications. According to the Myspace website, the prohibition of “trackers” is explicitly stated in the terms and conditions. Ironically, the very person who stated that tracking was not allowed (an ex-developer by the username “Rhondata”), also admits to using external tracking devices because “it’s a privacy issue.” Another Myspace member voices regret that “it [would] be nice” if members could be given extensive information about the visitors of their profiles. The major trend of the forum supports my observations that one does not think much about the invasion of other’s privacy for the sake of the protection of one’s own privacy.
A Facebook application has taken a similar yet perhaps less invading approach to tracking visitors. The application “Fancheck” is a “professional service” that
“ranks your friends based on how often they interact with your Facebook wall. Interactions counted include wall posts, comments, likes, gifts and other public items posted to your wall. In accordance with the Facebook Privacy Policy, we do NOT count page views or private messages.”
Why does one use tracking devices without thinking of the violation of the privacy of others? Could it just be merely out of curiosity about one’s profile visitors? Or could it be something more? An interesting article about a notorious tracking device on a Korean social networking site, Cyworld, jokingly claimed that the reason why many employed (past-tense because application is no longer in service due to privacy issues) this tracking device was to see if their exes were still visiting their profiles!
On Myspace one of the various “tracking” devices available is whoisonmyspace. This application allows one to see the picture of the visitor, the visited date and time, and the visitor’s name. However, because of a voluminous amount of complaints, the application is no longer available, and Myspace either bans or deletes users with tracking applications. According to the Myspace website, the prohibition of “trackers” is explicitly stated in the terms and conditions. Ironically, the very person who stated that tracking was not allowed (an ex-developer by the username “Rhondata”), also admits to using external tracking devices because “it’s a privacy issue.” Another Myspace member voices regret that “it [would] be nice” if members could be given extensive information about the visitors of their profiles. The major trend of the forum supports my observations that one does not think much about the invasion of other’s privacy for the sake of the protection of one’s own privacy.
A Facebook application has taken a similar yet perhaps less invading approach to tracking visitors. The application “Fancheck” is a “professional service” that
“ranks your friends based on how often they interact with your Facebook wall. Interactions counted include wall posts, comments, likes, gifts and other public items posted to your wall. In accordance with the Facebook Privacy Policy, we do NOT count page views or private messages.”
This application tries to break free from the negative connotations linked to previous “trackers” by adhering to the Privacy policy and giving the application a friendly name “Fancheck.” (The application’s original name was “Stalkercheck.”) Although Fancheck is less invasive of people’s privacy, it still illustrates the desire people have to see who is looking at their profiles thus protecting their own privacy.
Why does one use tracking devices without thinking of the violation of the privacy of others? Could it just be merely out of curiosity about one’s profile visitors? Or could it be something more? An interesting article about a notorious tracking device on a Korean social networking site, Cyworld, jokingly claimed that the reason why many employed (past-tense because application is no longer in service due to privacy issues) this tracking device was to see if their exes were still visiting their profiles!
Works Cited
1. http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fapps.facebook.com%2Ffancheck%2F&h=e64bf90771e10343ce3e473a19da092c (no longer available due to Facebook block)