How Safe Is It?

By Kemba Francis, Intern

Last week, I read in New York Magazine an article titled “Do You Own Facebook? Or Does Facebook Own You?” by Vanessa Grigoriadis. The title immediately caught my interest, as I am fairly a new user of social media.

The article started out with the change in Facebook’s Terms of Service. Originally, once your account was closed with Facebook, they automatically forfeit their rights to any material you posted while your account was open. Facebook’s new Terms of Service now gave them the right to do anything they wanted with the information you posted on Facebook, even after your account was closed. Am I the only one that thinks so, or does this become an ethical issue? What are the real objectives behind Facebook? The way we know Facebook is as a social networking site where people can connect with others in an informal matter.

With other social networking sites available to endless of users, it is really important to send a message to its users giving them that sense of security and privacy they look for. As cliché as it sounds, “monkey see, monkey do,” it’s not always the best to follow in the others footsteps.