The Web 2 - Research Paper Example

Face book: Introduction: The Web 2.0 has given the world or communications and internet a totally new dimension and vision. It has enabled new forms of communications that were not possible before. Social networking websites are the characteristic element of Web 2.0; however websites among these S.N.S, such as Face book have remained a topic of discussion and considerable controversy regarding its privacy and safety factors. The presence of heaps of information about the users on their pages is a point of concern to many and leaves much to be desired. Social aspect: The recent events in the Middle East in form of Arab Spring are being contributed to the Face book, and the aristocratic and monarchic governments have taken it very negatively, seeking control over Face book. In the view of such vulnerable position, the state legislative entities have shown their concern regarding the state of security being provided by Face book. Senate has shown its interest in bid to make Face book more secure (Teschler 2010). Aims of the paper: The aims of the paper is to evaluate the present state of Face book services, its security functions, the potential loopholes and safety that is offered by Face book, assess the level of concern shown by different segments and the possible changes that may be made in order to make Face book more effective and less insecure. Face book has become the most famous and successful social network in the internet world. According to Alexa, a website the specializes in the determination of the ranking of the web sites, Face book is the runner-up behind the famous search engine Google (Alexa 2012). However, surrounding the Face book revolution and evolution drama, there have been controversies, speculations and rumors about the privacy policy of this, first social network in the world. Recently, the issue received considerable attention from the media. Therefore, there are two sides, those who agree with the policy of Face book and those who are against the Privacy Policy. The political backlash: The issue has ballooned during the recent revolutions in the world, especially "The Arab Spring". The reason is that planning for the revolutions happened on pages or within groups on Face book specifically. Because of this, some Governments have to stand against the policy of Face book. For example, Saudi Arabias King Abdullah had wanted to buy out Face book for $150 billion because he was very upset with Mark Zukerberg, who is the CEO of Face book, for allowing revolt Face book pages in Egypt and Libya to be formed (BBC 2011). The Makers View: According to Mark Zukerberg, it is the users themselves, who seek such an expanded option list and further, people are less insecure due to the prevailing trends that have evolved over last few years which also include the concept of blogging. On the other hand, the organizers of the Face book see that their network is innocent of all charges against it. Furthermore, the owners of Face book still say that the Face book goals, since it was founded, are to share the photos and posts of a group of people and not, as some claim, that they are watching people and working for the benefit of certain organizations. With use of every tool comes its chances of abuse, Face book being so heavily built and developed, the chances of abuse and misuse are heavy and large. For example the location point, which might go off unnoticed by the user yet provides all the details of an individual who might had been at a certain place at a particular time. Creating a Face book account means giving away all the information concerned ranging from first name, last name, to college, high school, university, where about, friends and family, while with so much information being shared, it is the prime responsibility of the Face book administration to ensure that the data remains safe and is not vulnerable to the hands where it can be manipulated and used against the users in any way possible. Visibility of the friends list until and unless not hidden is a serious concern and it cannot just lead to privacy breach of the user using the ID rather the people associated (Jhonston & Wilson 2012). Change in mechanism: To some critiques the option of privacy settings only after the ID has been created is a point of concern over the medium of Face book and it seeks resolution and solution. The verdict: Personally, I see that Face book is closer to being presumed innocent of these rumors. In addition to that, the site is developing its features continuously. Also, Face book has recently changed the privacy settings after they were requested to do this step by some governments like the Canadian government ((BBC 2010). This shows the cooperation of Face book in trying to balance societys perception of the network. However, this is far from the complete objectives and task, and much more needs to be done to make the medium of social networking in general and Face book in particular a more comprehensive and more reliable medium that has already become an integral part of almost every person who is on the digital bandwagon. Conclusion: Equipping the website with the basic elements which are demanded by the clients is the right move, but it must be ensured that this information and option does not stand in the way of safe operations and safe online functioning .The recent updates and time line like features are motivated by the fact that each of the social networking giants has been trying to out maneuver one another by providing something novel. This something novel at times does come in line with the breach and compromise over privacy which should be taken into consideration. In conclusion, with fierce competition between the social networks that have emerged recently, such as Twitter and Google Plus, Face book has the right to continue to evolve and add more features, but also Face book must continue the cooperation with the two sides. Although, it can be argued, that there is, ultimately, “no contenting some people References: Topsites, 2012. Web. 16 April 2012 : http://www.alexa.com. BBC. (2011, Aug 22). Facebook changes privacy options. Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-14633427 BBC. (2010, Jan 28). Canada to probe Facebook privacy. Retrieved from BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8484664.stm Jhonston, A., & Wilson, S. (2012). Privacy Compliance RIsks for Facebook. IEEE Technology and Society Magazine. Teschler, L. (2010). Facebook Follies and Privacy Problems. Design.com. Read More