ICT and ethics

“The Facebook”. It all started in 2004 when Mark Zuckerberg and with some help from Andrew McCollum og Eduardo Saverin decided to start an internal network for all the university students. From this time on and to now, it’s called Facebook, and the website currently has more than 400 million active users worldwide.

According to Wikipedia, Facebook is a net community where users can create profiles with photos, lists of personal interests, contact information and other personal information. Communicating with friends and other users can be done through private or public messages or a chat feature. Users can also create and join interest groups and "like pages" (formerly called "fan pages" until April 19, 2010), some of which are maintained by organizations as a means of advertising. To allay concerns about privacy, Facebook enables users to choose their own privacy settings and choose who can see what parts of their profile.

Here is a funny song about "how Facebook works".



Pros for Facebook.

It’s an ideal place to meet and find old friends/new friends, to keep in touch with each other. Friends are an important resource for social belonging, support and networking.

There is a great opportunity to keep in touch with your family, you can share photos, stories and videos.

Cons for Facebook.
All the things that you decide to put on your Facebook is owned by Facebook. This means that if you put a picture of your son "out - there", its rights are now owned by Facebook. This also concern videos, texts and so on. And lately in the media there are concerns about the complexity in the Facebook privacy. As you can read in the New York Times, it's even longer then the Unites States Constitution and it's hard to figure out what are the right settings. So Facebook has called in for a meeting about the privacy settings that people are dissatisfied with. Because we just want to care about how our class mate is doing, not about worrying our self how the information about us will be used. In E24Media we can read that even the European safety authorities calls the changes in Facebook users' privacy for "unacceptable". And recently it is discovered a new hole in the security of Facebook that causes anyone, with or without a Facebook account, search for your status updates. (27.05.10) Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg has anounced that Facebooks privacy setting will be more easy to understand, and more secure.


Show - offs. People can show off with their friend list, saying:"Look at me, I'm popular! I have many friends". This can again feel like a terrible defeat for many who hasen't got many friends. And by the way - How many of your friends are really FRIENDS?

Sites as Facebook can be used for bullying, in terms like tagging photos of you doing something stupid or creating a group against YOU. As we know there is a lot of photos being handed out there without asking the ones in the picture for approval. It is almost a universal belief that it is ok to add your photo to Facebook.


What TO say or NOT to say?
People seem to notice that there could be others reading your facebook page, through your page as a friend, or your page through a friend's friend. This makes things even more important with what you say and what sort of pictures you post. It is important that you choose the right account settings to your account.

Is it ok to talk badly about your old job on Facebook. Where is the limit between privacy and business? What is "allowed" to say on Facebook? Can somebody post f.ex "I'm glad I quit my last job, my new job has so much to offer!" Is this really ok to discredit your old job like this between the lines?

Can you post a picture without asking the ones on the picture for their approval?Anyone who publishes online images must adhere to the Personal Data Act and the Copyright Act. This means that one can not publish a picture of a person without the consent of the depicted. It is he who has published the photos, if any, must prove a voluntary, express and informed consent really exists.
Read more about the legislation here:

- Åndverksloven §45
- Personopplysninsloven §8

So why do we break the law and the ethic? Why don't we care about these rules? Is it that we haven't yet seen the "worse - case - scenarios"?

Still there has been some:

Facebook scandal in sweden. An employee at Karolinksa Univerity Hospital embarked surgery photos to a group on Facebook. The comments on these pictures were also of a offensive nature.

Facebook scandal in Denmark. A press representative for the Danish party Venstre did write on her wall that a person who worked in a kiosk was "on drugs and f#¤%& up". She ended her job.

Facebook scandal in USA. A emplyee did let her frustation take over when she wrote on her facebook-status: "Thank you for dining at Brixx, you cheap "#&%/¤"§!" So the boss had to fire her.

What is really ok to post on Facebook? Why do we post pictures of others without asking them? Why don't we care? Do YOU have a answer to this?