The Facebook Conspiracy by Ben Peterson

 Ben Peterson gets annoyed by people complaining about Facebook.

Five hundred million people have Facebook accounts.

That’s 500 million people who put their personal information on the web for all the world to see.

And 500 million people’s information is sold to advertisers by Facebook.

That’s right, every user’s information is being sold to companies they don’t know in order to make Facebook more money.

An evil corporation is making personal gains off the user’s personal data, exporting them to the highest bidder.

So the conspiracy says.

The end results of these transactions are the tiny pictures and captions on the right side of the Facebook page, encouraging the user to buy whatever they may be interested in.

The uproar surrounding these events could be compared to the outrage the Patriot Act, which enables the government to wire-tap and perform other privacy-invading actions, caused.

As the public reaction to the Patriot Act was one of immense general anger, the feeling has appeared again in regard to this Facebook “scandal.”

Should this policy of Facebook really be considered such an attack on privacy when the user freely put the information on the web?

To be fair, each Facebook customer consciously decides to put the information on the web, and is therefore giving that information up to whoever can view it.

But besides fair treatment, is it really a terrible invasion of privacy when the information being sold is the customer’s interests in volleyball, lacrosse or underwater basket weaving?

Facebook isn’t selling what the person did last summer to the press.

It isn’t bartering their address for money.

It isn’t vending their darkest secrets to the government.

It is telling a film advertiser that they enjoy action movies and therefore may like the new one he has to promote.  

Facebook has to make money somehow, and if they do it by harmlessly giving away a user’s pointless info that they willingly gave up, so be it.

Ultimately, Facebook provides the people a service.

Members are allowed to connect with friends, family and coworkers quickly and for free.

To criticize that which allows us this immense connectivity is selfish and rude, especially under the name of privacy.

This argument should not be taken as an attack on the everyday American’s steadfast belief in personal privacy.

It is understandable for people to want to keep some information personal, especially with the society that is active on the internet.

It is not understandable to put unimportant data on the internet, and then complain when that information is used to keep a beneficial site operational.