Radical Transparency: Privacyafter a Decade of Facebook

Dr. Kate Raynes-GoldieDepartment of Internet Studies, Curtin University

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The internet and the way we use it has changed

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• Why did this happen?

• How did we get here?

• Where are we going?

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Radical transparency

“Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected.” (Zuckerberg in a letter to investors, 2012)

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A mission to get rid of privacy

• "[Zuckerberg] believes that [Facebook] is truly making the world better" (Lacy, 2008, p. 161).

• “My encounters with Zuckerberg lead me to believe that he genuinely believes ... that society will be better off if people make themselves transparent" (boyd, 2010).

• "In the world we’re building where the world is more transparent, it becomes good for people to be good to each other. That’s really important as we try to solve some of the world’s problems" (Zuckerberg quoted in Smith 2008).

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The internet circa 2004

“Four years ago, when Facebook was just getting started, most people didn’t want to put information about themselves on the Internet. So, we got people through this really big hurdle of getting people to want to put up their full name, a real picture, mobile phone number…and connections to real people…as long as the stream of information is constantly increasing, and as long as we’re doing our job…our role of pushing that forward, I think that’s…the best strategy for us” (Zuckerberg quoted in Zimmer, 2008c)

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"Facebook systematically delivers signals suggesting an intimate, confidential, and safe setting. Perhaps unsurprisingly, these signals are the same ones that make it such a natural place for socializing." (Grimmelmann 2009)

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Creating a culture of sharing: 2004 to 2006

thefacebook Facebook

default settings mostly closed mostly open

users students everyone

context dorm room all contexts

access control university email any email

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Policies & Culture

• “Real” names and relationships

• Leveraging university, dorm culture

• Facebook employees mimic, reinforce and lead by example of how to behave on the site (Losse 2012)

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Features & Architecture

• Email address requirement

• Newsfeed

• Default settings from closed to open (McKeon, 2010)

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Deployment Strategy

• Beacon, Newsfeed: two steps forward, one step back

• Continually changing settings, users give up

• Death by a thousand cuts

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A culture and architecture of transparency

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Changing privacy norms

We experience it anecdotally, but also...

The scope and amount of personal information shared on Facebook has markedly increased over the past decade (Stutzman, Gross, & Acquisti, 2013)

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Changing behaviour, but changing concerns

• Increased concern, (or at least awareness) of digital privacy

• Concern about different types of privacy

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(Raynes-Goldie 2010; Raynes-Goldie 2012)

Social Privacy Institutional privacy

Protection and control of identity, reputation; access control; physical safety

Protection and control of data

Context collapse, loss of identity control

Exposure to marketing, hacking, data theft, datamining

Threats from individuals: employers, friends, ex-partners

Threats from institutions: social media companies, financial companies, law enforcement

Shift, but also increase, in concerns

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Looking forward: Google Glass

• Pornography and facial recognition banned, for now

• Normalisation of surveillance as sociality

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1984

• By force, or by manufactured consent through convenience and fear?

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Thanks

k.raynes-goldie@curtin.edu.au@oceanpark

k4t3.org

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