September 23, 2013

                Today was the last day of learning critical reading course. I learned about facebook which I know very well because I use it every day to communicate to my friends. And today I submitted all present works and backlogs. I also did the exercise at the end of the lesson;

1. How many users does facebook have? - There are 400 million users.

2. With what websites has Facebook recently begun sharing users’ personal profile information? - Facebook has begun sharing user's personal profile information with Pandora and Yelp.

3. What other changes has Facebook recently made to the website? - Facebook made it so that they could sell information about a user even if that information was thought to be private by the user. Facebook has also begun to be included on other websites.

4. Even if you block information shared from your site, how could your personal information still be made public? - The information could still be shared from a friend's account.

5. Do you think Facebook should automatically share your info, and only refrain from doing so if you know about it and go into your settings to opt out?  Explain your answer - Facebook should not automatically share information because many people do not know that Facebook will share their information and the user should know that information will be shared before it is shared to keep the privacy of the user. Facebook can still make money by displaying targeted advertisements on its own website without having to share the information with other companies or people.

6. This article states “Facebook wants to make money by selling user information.”  Do you think that is their motive for sharing your info, or is it as Facebook stated, to assist users by "promot[ing] social activity" by sharing your info? Explain your answer - Facebook's motivation for sharing information is based on making money. Facebook can sell the personal information of its users to companies which will use it for marketing. All for-profit companies exist only to make money. In addition, if Facebook does intend to “promote social activity”, then they will also make money by enhancing the features of their service and attracting new users.

I felt regret that this course would end but I hope next term I will enjoy with Dr. Usa again in any course due to my fate. I had no problem at all and I was excited too.