Political Economy and
Facebook Privacy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXOavGwAW8&feature=player_embedded
Quiz Question #1
“We should therefore go beyond a bourgeois notion of Facebook and
try to advance a _______concept of privacy that aims at strengthening
the protection of consumers and citizens from corporate surveillance and
other forms of domination” (Fuchs, p. 141).
a)
b)
c)
d)
Socialist
Smart
Secret
Financial
Quiz Question #2
What does Fuchs say that Facebook relies on to stay in business?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Mark Zuckerberg
Privacy policy
Unpaid labor of Facebook users
Government regulations
Quiz Question #3
________ describes the increasingly blurred line between
producers and consumers.
a)
b)
c)
d)
Surplus value
Internet users
Prosumers
Conducers
Quiz Question #4
“direct participation of citizens in the regulation of the key institutions
of society, including the workplace and local community” is a key feature
of what notion?
a)
b)
c)
d)
Freedom
Transparency
Capitalism
Participatory democracy
Liberal conception of privacy
Financial privacy
“The anonymity of wealth, high incomes, and profits
makes income and wealth gaps between the rich and the poor
invisible and thereby ideologically helps legitimate and uphold
these gaps.” (Fuchs, p.140)
Socialist conception of privacy
Contextual privacy
Privacy needs to protect consumers and workers
from company control…
but corporate interests and power should be
made visible.
Has the internet become “participatory”?
“Social networking sites and other internet
platforms need to be controlled by the
users themselves and organized within the
framework of a participatory economy in
order to be sensitive to the economic
privacy of users” (Fuchs, p. 149).
FB invests $ to create free platform
and hires employees to run it
Users populate with data
FB sells information to advertising clients
Targeted ads
What are the commodities here?
http://www.theonion.com/video/cias-facebookprogram-dramatically-cut-agencys-cos,19753/
Facebook studies so far:
Individual responsibility vs. corporate exploitation
EULA’s and neoliberalism
Did you know this? How transparent is Instagram’s new TOS?
So…what can we do?
Opt-in privacy policies
Alternative internet platforms
Negotiate terms of service?
Petitions, protests, and lobbying
Opt-Out
Do Not Track Online Act of 2011
Do Not Track Kids Act of 2011
Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights – early 2012
Other social media sites?
Group Work
1. Define your term or phrase in your own words
2. Explain how it is used in the article, or how it relates to
Fuchs’ arguments
3. Think of two examples of this concept (can be from your
experience or not – real or hypothetical)
Prosumer
Transparency
Surveillance
Playbor
Exploitation
“Liberal privacy values”
Contextual privacy
Participatory democracy