radical transparency: privacy after a decade of facebook
DESCRIPTION
Abstract: The amount and scope of personal information shared on Facebook has markedly increased over the past decade (Stutzman, Gross, & Acquisti, 2013), a privacy shift that has been reflected in internet usage more broadly. In the words of Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO: "[In 2004] when Facebook was just getting started, most people didn’t want to put information about themselves on the Internet. So, we got people through this really big hurdle of getting people to want to put up their full name, a real picture, mobile phone number…and connections to real people… (Zimmer, 2008). As Zuckerberg's statement suggests, these changes were not accidental. Facebook has intentionally and consistently pushed users to to increase their personal disclosures, or, as those at Facebook describe it, to become more "open and connected" (Raynes-Goldie, 2012). As their revenue model is based on datamining and targeted advertising, Facebook has a clear financial motivation to encourage its users to share more personal information on the site. However, profit is not the company's only motivation. Underpinning Facebook's push towards less privacy is a deep ideological belief that if if we all lived more open, transparent and less private lives, society would be more compassionate, equal and just (Smith, 2007). It is a belief that Zuckerberg and his "inner circle" at Facebook describe as "radical transparency" (Kirkpatrick, 2010, p. 207). Based on an extensive archival and media analysis of primary and secondary materials gathered over the last decade (including developer changelogs, court documents, official blog posts, interviews, and first hand employee accounts) and this paper will examine how Facebook has attempted to impose radical transparency upon its users, and indeed the internet more broadly. Specifically, this paper will outline how the company, through a variety of mechanisms (technical, discursive, social and policy-based), has strategically transformed Facebook's culture from a locked down, student-focused community to a much less private, more open social network where nearly a billion people actively share their personal information and daily activities -- changes which, due to the global pervasiveness of Facebook, have had a ripple effect on privacy culture more broadly. Overall, this paper will document exactly how and why a decade of Facebook has significantly changed privacy online.TRANSCRIPT
Radical Transparency: Privacyafter a Decade of Facebook
Dr. Kate Raynes-GoldieDepartment of Internet Studies, Curtin University
Thursday, 4 July 13
The internet and the way we use it has changed
Thursday, 4 July 13
Thursday, 4 July 13
• Why did this happen?
• How did we get here?
• Where are we going?
Thursday, 4 July 13
Thursday, 4 July 13
Radical transparency
“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.” (Zuckerberg in a letter to investors, 2012)
Thursday, 4 July 13
A mission to get rid of privacy
• "[Zuckerberg] believes that [Facebook] is truly making the world better" (Lacy, 2008, p. 161).
• “My encounters with Zuckerberg lead me to believe that he genuinely believes ... that society will be better off if people make themselves transparent" (boyd, 2010).
• "In the world we’re building where the world is more transparent, it becomes good for people to be good to each other. That’s really important as we try to solve some of the world’s problems" (Zuckerberg quoted in Smith 2008).
Thursday, 4 July 13
The internet circa 2004
“Four years ago, when Facebook was just getting started, most people didn’t want to put information about themselves on the Internet. So, we got people through this really big hurdle of getting people to want to put up their full name, a real picture, mobile phone number…and connections to real people…as long as the stream of information is constantly increasing, and as long as we’re doing our job…our role of pushing that forward, I think that’s…the best strategy for us” (Zuckerberg quoted in Zimmer, 2008c)
Thursday, 4 July 13
"Facebook systematically delivers signals suggesting an intimate, confidential, and safe setting. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these signals are the same ones that make it such a natural place for socializing." (Grimmelmann 2009)
Thursday, 4 July 13
Creating a culture of sharing: 2004 to 2006
thefacebook Facebook
default settings mostly closed mostly open
users students everyone
context dorm room all contexts
access control university email any email
Thursday, 4 July 13
Policies & Culture
• “Real” names and relationships
• Leveraging university, dorm culture
• Facebook employees mimic, reinforce and lead by example of how to behave on the site (Losse 2012)
Thursday, 4 July 13
Features & Architecture
• Email address requirement
• Newsfeed
• Default settings from closed to open (McKeon, 2010)
Thursday, 4 July 13
Deployment Strategy
• Beacon, Newsfeed: two steps forward, one step back
• Continually changing settings, users give up
• Death by a thousand cuts
Thursday, 4 July 13
A culture and architecture of transparency
Thursday, 4 July 13
Changing privacy norms
We experience it anecdotally, but also...
The scope and amount of personal information shared on Facebook has markedly increased over the past decade (Stutzman, Gross, & Acquisti, 2013)
Thursday, 4 July 13
Changing behaviour, but changing concerns
• Increased concern, (or at least awareness) of digital privacy
• Concern about different types of privacy
Thursday, 4 July 13
(Raynes-Goldie 2010; Raynes-Goldie 2012)
Social Privacy Institutional privacy
Protection and control of identity, reputation; access control; physical safety
Protection and control of data
Context collapse, loss of identity control
Exposure to marketing, hacking, data theft, datamining
Threats from individuals: employers, friends, ex-partners
Threats from institutions: social media companies, financial companies, law enforcement
Shift, but also increase, in concerns
Thursday, 4 July 13
Looking forward: Google Glass
• Pornography and facial recognition banned, for now
• Normalisation of surveillance as sociality
Thursday, 4 July 13
1984
• By force, or by manufactured consent through convenience and fear?
Thursday, 4 July 13
