Georgetown University LogoGeorgetown University Library LogoDigitalGeorgetown Home
    • Login
    View Item 
    •   DigitalGeorgetown Home
    • Georgetown University Institutional Repository
    • School of Continuing Studies
    • Liberal Studies
    • Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   DigitalGeorgetown Home
    • Georgetown University Institutional Repository
    • School of Continuing Studies
    • Liberal Studies
    • Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    FACEBOOK'S RADICAL TRANSPARENCY:THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR PRIVACY IN AMERICA

    Cover for FACEBOOK'S RADICAL TRANSPARENCY:THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS FOR PRIVACY IN AMERICA
    View/Open
    View/Open: Rohrer_georgetown_0076M_11951.pdf (456kB) Bookview

    Creator
    Rohrer, Donna Weatherly
    Advisor
    White, Gladys B
    Abstract
    Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg on the radical social premise that transparency will permeate modern life and will be a force for social good. However, what Facebook actually accomplishes is not as benign as its founder envisions. The social networking site's continual introduction of features that encourage millions of users to share more data about themselves online with an ever-wider network of `friends' poses an intriguing ethical question: What will be lost if privacy is no longer there?
     
    Although the global transparency movement offers benefits to people struggling to obtain greater freedom from oppression in all its forms, it also brings perils, as transparency is used as an instrument of control and power over people. The answer to the question is that without privacy, which is derived from and essential to basic democratic liberties, including freedom of expression and freedom of the press, there is no modulating influence on the disruptive invasions that Facebook and other Internet providers can wreak on personal dignity and autonomy. The European Union approach to privacy illustrates principles that can be applied to restore balance among sometimes competing rights in America, both for individuals and the larger social good.
     
    Facebook's radical transparency requires that policymakers adjust the levers among the four ethical constraints that define the Internet, as Lawrence Lessig first identified: law, market forces, social norms, and the architecture, or code. The social goods and individual human flourishing that privacy enables is essential to balancing the panopticon effects of such Web 2.0 practices as data aggregation and storage and data mining.
     
    Remedies to restore equilibrium include application of privacy enhancing technologies (PET) to give citizen-consumers tools to better control access to personal information, policies to incentivize Internet businesses, and rules to establish the principles of limited use, expiration dates, contextual integrity and the pluralist social values that will sustain civility and community in the information age.
     
    Description
    M.A.L.S.
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/10822/557689
    Date Published
    2012
    Subject
    European Union; Facebook; privacy; public policy; radical transparency; social media; Ethics; Information technology; World Wide Web; Research; Ethics; Information technology; Web studies;
    Type
    thesis
    Publisher
    Georgetown University
    Extent
    115 leaves
    Collections
    • Liberal Studies Theses and Dissertations
    Metadata
    Show full item record

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • Thumbnail

      Ethical Implications of Transparency. Valid Justification Is Required When Withholding Information 

      Nelson, William A.; Campfield, Justin (2006-11)
    Related Items in Google Scholar

    Georgetown University Seal
    ©2009 - 2022 Georgetown University Library
    37th & O Streets NW
    Washington DC 20057-1174
    202.687.7385
    digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu
    Accessibility
     

     

    Browse

    All of DigitalGeorgetownCommunities & CollectionsCreatorsTitlesBy Creation DateThis CollectionCreatorsTitlesBy Creation Date

    My Account

    Login

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Georgetown University Seal
    ©2009 - 2022 Georgetown University Library
    37th & O Streets NW
    Washington DC 20057-1174
    202.687.7385
    digitalscholarship@georgetown.edu
    Accessibility