Introduction
Social networks have been having privacy issues; in the case of Beacon and Facebook, Facebook had made it possible for people to share their private life with others using Beacon; the launch had been done in December 2007. When the program was launched, it seemed to facilitate business and sharing of information until the information got to unwanted users. This paper discusses steps that Facebook should Facebook do with the data transferred to the site by Beacon.
Retrieve the data
Since the damage has already occurred, the first intervention that the company should do is to ensure that all the information that had been taken by Beacon gets back to them and they have secured it; although this intervention may be late, it may be a remedy to the information that the company has not used. Although the effort had been made to improve services by the company; Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that it was faulty and a decision that had not been well thought out (Kirsten, 2009b).
It was unethical for the system to allow people’s information to be shared with people that they did not permit. The decision made by the C.E.O. to admit the mistake done was ethical and professional; it was also necessary for the company to the victims that their information had gotten into the hands of unintended people, thus they should ignore emails, updates, and messages.
To ensure that clients and users of Facebook got contented by the efforts by the company; the decision to have an opt-out program was crucial, the program would ensure that a user can withdraw from the service fully (Liana, 2010).
Improving security systems
Facebook should accept to take full responsibility for the situation; it should ensure that it updates its security systems to avoid such practices in the future; the company should assure customers that in the case of other similar programs in the future, they are secure. The site engineering should understand that the enacted systems have been tampered with; with technological development, the company should have expected such an action (Evans & McKee, 2010).
Policies that improve the security of the company should be on the two-stage platform; those that users can have and those that the company can have. For the actions that the users should use, Facebook should advise their site users on how to upgrade their profiles and improve their security. Some simple policies can be allowed where the correct position of a user is maintained by the administrator but the user uses other names.
When a customer has experienced some unpleasant information, the systems should have a way of receiving complaints from users; when complaints are received, then the administrators will know the areas they should intervene in and probably do the same before much damage has been made (Kirsten, 2009a).
Ethical issues and practices of the case
The initial idea that the company had to allow people to share information and different issues on their whereabouts was good; however; it was unethical to allow other people not authorized to get information from Beacon. The management showed a high level of ethical practice when it decided to take responsibility, admit its mistake, and offered a remedy to the virtual. It is ethical for someone to have control over the kind of information he can give to the world as well as the friends that he would like to get information from her profile. In the future, it is ethical for Facebook to be requesting permission from account users to give their personal information to others or link accounts (Kirsten, 2009b).
References
Evans, D., & McKee, J. (2010). Social Media Marketing: The Next Generation of Business Engagement. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
Kirsten, E. M.(2009a). Facebook(B): Beacon and Privacy. New York: Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.
Kirsten, E. M. (2009b). Facebook(B): Beacon and Privacy. New York: Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.
Liana, E. (2010). Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media. New York: Que.