The political economy of social media

#quiz!

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” (Füchs, p. 141).

a) socialistb) smartc) secretd) financial

2. According to Füchs, what does Facebook rely on to stay in business?

a) Mark Zuckerbergb) privacy policyc) unpaid labor of Facebook usersd) government regulations

3. ________ describes the increasingly blurred line between producers and consumers.

a) surplus valueb) Internet usersc) prosumersd) Zuckerbergization

What does Füchs describe as “direct participation of citizens in the regulation of the key institutions of society, including the workplace and local community”?

a) freedomb) transparencyc) capitalismd) participatory democracy

BONUSAccording to Füchs, who or what actually has access to privacy these days?

a) NOBODY!b) corporations & the wealthyc) hackersd) Marxists

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJXOavGwAW8&feature=player_embedded

Facebook numbers!

• Who cares about privacy?

• Liberal vs socialist conceptions of privacy: who “owns” our data? How?

• Group work

Privacy

"If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place." (Eric Schmidt, Google CEO, 2009)

What do we mean when we say “privacy?”

• OF what?• FROM what?

What is more worrying: government breaches of privacy or corporate breaches of privacy?

“They conceive privacy strictly as an individual phenomenon that can be protected if users behave in the correct way and do not disclose too much information.”

“Mainstream” studies of Facebook:

Liberal conception of privacy

“Economic privacy under capitalism (the right to keep information about income, profits, and bank trans- actions secret) protects companies and the wealthy. 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.” (Füchs, p.140)

Rooted in notions of property & ownership:You own it, you’re entitled to keep it private

“protects the rich and capital from public accountability” (p. 141)

Who here knows the contents of the last EULA they “agreed” to?

And while most of the recent public outrage in the U.S. has been directed at instances of government snooping, giant private corporations are equally as guilty of the troubling invasion of peoples' selves. Companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Facebook blatantly collect and commercialize personal data - often covering their tracks with complicated fine-print user agreement contracts that most people, whose property it is, "agree" to without any consideration. Clicking "I agree" on an expansive, non-negotiable user agreement for a website or a software program is, to most people, just another mindless click of the mouse in the signup process.http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/424-national-security/20083-opting-out-from-the-corporate-state-of-surveillance

Are EULAs are designed to not be read?

Socialist conception of privacy

• Protect individual privacy• Make corporate activities and profits transparent & visible

“A socialist conception of privacy conceives privacy as a collective right of exploited groups that need

protection from corporate domination that uses data gathering for accumulating capital, for

disciplining workers and consumers, and for increasing the productivity of capitalist production and

advertising” (p. 141)

Socialist vs Liberal conceptions

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?

EULA

So…what can we do?

Opt-in privacy policies

Alternative internet platforms

Negotiate terms of service?

Petitions, protests, and lobbying

Opt-Out

Privacy Watchdogs – increase transparency

Other social media sites?

Groupwork

1. Define the term in your own words

2. Explain how it relates to Füchs’ overall thesis / argument

3. Think of two examples or illustrations of this concept (can be from your own experience and/or from recent news)

Prosumer Transparency Exploitation

Contextual integrity Participatory democracy Audience commodity

PROSUMER

1. Utilizing a service while also producing some type of service that is utilized by an

outside source.

2. People that are prosumers are exploited, often unknowingly or knowingly, to provide

profits for other capitalistic corporations or entities.

3. Ex: Using a profile picture as an advertisement for a separate dating site

Ex: Instagram using photos as advertisement (Hotel advertisement in Hawaii).

Ex: Cell phone tracking to get GPS data for people’s driving habits (Ingress Ap).

Contextual IntegrityThe language and jargon used in End User license Agreements, which in turn aren’t using common vocabulary. This makes these terms hard to understand by the common person.

You can opt out, but you can’t opt in unless you know what the jargon is saying. You usually end up agreeing to terms that you don’t fully understand. If you don’t accept the terms, you get nothing; not parts.Examples:

ANYTHING you download will have terms that you must agree to if you want to use it.Apple reads all of your information as soon as an app is downloaded. You are asked for your location, information, access to other apps on your device, and if you want to receive push notifications.

Transparency

1. Open and honest, not secret, easily noticeable, out in the open

2. Holding corporations accountable for how they use your data, make business

and economic practices more noticeable.

3. Examples

a. Verizon releases transparency report- http://

newscenter.verizon.com/corporate/news-articles/2014/01-22-

verizon-releases-transparency-report/

b. Whole Foods commits to full GMO transparency- http://

media.wholefoodsmarket.com/news/whole-foods-market-commits-to-full-gmo-transparency

Exploitation

1) When corporations and government take advantage of you, usually in an

effort to make profit.

2) Fuchs talks about social media analysis of exploitation and how consumers

information is exploited on websites such as Facebook.

3) Internships and NC State portion of tuition that goes to athletics are

prime examples of exploitation. Internships are exploits students need for

experience, where they tend to work long hours without pay. N.C. State

athletic tuition is another example because some students do not have

interest in sports or going to games, but the athletic fees for tickets are

already in their tuition rather they are interested or not.

1. Define

Exploitation:Using another or a group of others for production in which they are not fairly compensated.ome side gains more than the other. It is often that the exploited group doesn't have a better option in that realm of interest (social networking for example) — they're subjected to power and don't really have much of their own.

2.

This relates to Füchs' overall thesis/argument because Facebook users provide data (commodification) and Facebook draws a profit from that data. Users are exploited because they're not monetarily compensated. They have to agree to the terms of service or they don't get to use the company's product. Füchs argue that the user doesn't have power/privacy and this is the case here with exploitation since Facebook has control over its users' data.

3.

A) Facebook, right now, has a campaign for its 10th anniversary where you can see a video of your 10 years of Facebook. The promotion is that you could see how much Facebook has done for your life. You can see how connected you are but it's an illustration of all the data they've collected over ten years. Data they've sold to advertisers and made a profit from. But that's not included in the video description.B) Android phones that have Facebook app connection recognize when you've taken pictures on your phone's camera app (separate from Facebook). When you log into the Facebook app it asks if you'd like to upload those pictures. So they're exploiting pictures you didn't even intend to use in Facebook. It's done under the guise of convenience.

1. Audience commodity – Social media outlets using their members’ data to sell

to corporations and turn a profit.

2. Audience commodity is the basis for Fuchs’ argument, which states that

corporations take advantage of individuals’ privacy and personal lives for the

corporations’ benefit.

3. Examples:

a. Online advertisements

b. Coupons

1. Define the term in your own words? Audience Commodity: Our information that we post or do on the internet becomes the “audience commodity” for advertising clients. Our activities are their profit.

2. Explain how it relates to Fuchs’ overall thesis/ argument: The entire thesis of this article is based on the principle of audience commodity. Fuchs’ suggest a socialists view on privacy and the precautions that we can take to protect our privacy. Basically, he is trying to inform us and trying to keep us from unwilling giving away our information and becoming an audience commodity to corporations without implicit consent.

3. Think of two examples or illustrations of this concept:

a. Facebook will suggest that you “like” certain pages on Facebook based on previous pages you have “liked.” i.e., If you “like” a certain band’s page, it will suggest that you “like” another—even if you have never heard of it. Thus, your information of “liking” a certain band has become an audience commodity to Facebook and their advertising clients.

b. Also, Amazon will suggest other products that you should buy based on previous purchases your have made or products that you have viewed online.

Audience commodity