Week Seven Weblog

Myspace.com, Facebook.com, and Surveillance

This week's readings take a significant turn in subject matter from the previous weeks. The topic covers surveillance and privacy in the information age. As written by Nissenbaum: "In contemporary, technologically advaced societies, it is commonplace for large sectors of populations to participate, in varying degrees, in electronically networked interactions" (p. 562). Two of these types of networks, Myspace and Facebook, are extremely popular--especially with teenagers and young adults. Both of these networks have been surveilled by outside agencies resulting in hiring rejections, arrests, and pranks to deceive police. I describe and give my opinion of each below:

Facebook Becomes Tool For Employers
http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=31948

In this article, there is a quote by Yale Undergraduate Career Services Director Philip Jones: "The Facebook issue is the latest in a string of 'invasions of privacy' that students would do well to guard against," Jones said. "Everything you do that is in prthe public domain may be used by an employer as a way of evaluating you." Facebook is used by students (either high school or college) to post personal information. By using pictures and blogs, students commonly (daily) update their activities--some of which are very revealing in the nature of their behavior for recreation. Pictures and descriptions of certain activities (such as heavy, habitual drinking) have led prospective employers to decide not to hire individuals who partake in them. Personally, I believe this type of surveillance is justified. Take for instance a situation where an individual in interviewed and then is later seen in public by the possible employers in a public bar, completely intoxicated and behaving in a very disconcerting manner. This might sway the decision to hire such a person. If this same individual is seen through Facebook instead in a public bar, the medium has only changed. On the other hand, assume that an employer finds out through Facebook that an interviewee is homosexual and then makes a decision not to hire them based on that information. There are already laws in place that prevent this and they would need to be applied in this case. I agree with Jones that students should be careful of how information they make available on networks like Facebook. In a more general sense, students should be careful not to behave in ways that might jeapardize their employment prospects in all public domains, whether in a night club, bar or in the ether world. As James Rachels is explained by Nissenbaum (p. 583), "In having the power to share information discriminately, people are able to define the nature and degree of intimacy of various relationships."

Web Site Helps Police Track Down Stoughton Vandals
http://cbs4boston.com/topstories/local_story_011133721.html

AND

MySpace Not Exactly Private
http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=49522

These two articles describe how the Stoughton Police Department (Massachusetts) used the network Myspace to identify three teenagers who posted pictures of their grafitti on their profiles. In this case, a government agency has caught criminals through surveillance. There are probably many people who would argue that an advanced version of this technique of surveillance is being applied by Homeland Security and the Information Awareness Office (DARPA) to prevent terrorist attacks. The Patriot Act has given broad powers to agencies who use surveillance. In any case, I think the police were innovative in their pursuit of the criminals. Using Myspace is a far cry from tracking a person's Google search behavior to prevent a crime though. These police officers did not prevent anything. I think that Myspace falls in the category of a public domain. Much like the example in Nessenbaum's article of "red sweater," an individual can not suppress the information they make available in a public space. In my opinion, following the one I presented above, an individual must be selective of the type of behavior they make available in the public arena. If you want to make some type of information available--then be prepared to take responsibility for it and put it in context!

Also, I believe that if this type of surveillance is continued and the police come to rely on it, they should be very careful to do other types of research on the individuals before arresting them. I believe, to be completely ethical, the police should have engaged in further investigation/surveillance of the individuals they suspected of creating the graffiti. Only after catching the individuals in the act of the crime should they arrested them. This would allow for an assurance that the Myspace profiles were legitimately created and maintained by the criminals and not by a third party attempting to remain unknown to the authorities. This leads to the next article.

Guess Who's Looking on Facebook
http://www.advancetitan.com/story.asp?issue=11218&story=4633

This article covers the previous ones posted here, but I find it very interesting that a certain group of George Washington University (GWU) students planned an event that police came to only to find "no alcohol, just 40 students with cake and cookies decorated with the word 'beer.'" Aside from anything humorous, this deception is very revealing. The nature of networks like Myspace and Facebook are typically considered to be maintained only by individuals who create credible sources of information (and so this connects to our readings a few weeks ago). But obviously, this example shows explicitly that the information can be deceptive to authorities. GWU Police Cheif Mike Melland says (quoted in the article), "It’s a good source of intelligence for illegal activity...I am unaware of any law enforcement that doesn’t use it—it’s common knowledge.” In my opinion, Melland has been proven wrong. This opens the very disconcerting issue of the production of misinformation. It also demands that police not solely rely on these types of networks for their surveillance. I do think the police were innovative in their attempts to stop illegal consumption of alcohol, but I think there are more traditional methods such as random checks of places where these types of activities commonly occur (like fraternity houses and dorm halls). But maybe now police department budgets fund better internet connections rather than pay for officers to be active social beings in their communities.