Ethical Analysis Of Facebook Essay

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1. Perform an ethical analysis of Facebook, what is the ethical dilemma presented by this case? Identify and describe the facts clearly:
• Facebook made 3.2 billion in advertising revenue in 2011; 85% of their total revenue.
• Facebook launched its IPO (Initial Public Stock Offering) in 2012.
Facebook utilizes their own users online activities to their own benefit; obtaining as much data as possible from each individual.
• With this data, they can serve adverts that are relevant to the user they are directing it to; making more money for their company.

Define the conflict or dilemma and identify the highest-order values involved:

• Facebook monitors their users and then uses that information to sell to various advertisers
…show more content…
We can stay connected with our family and friends by posting images, updating our status, communicating through Facebook Messenger, and so much more. However, Facebook is actually collecting personal information from millions of users behind the scenes. Whether it is an update on what you ate for dinner or a picture of where you recently travelled - Facebook is constantly figuring out your personal tastes and all the other little details about your life. The main purpose of gathering this data is for advertising purposes; the primary method that Facebook makes money. In 2011, Facebook made an astounding $3.2 billion in revenue – with 85% of that coming from advertising. It’s very clear that advertising is the best way to make money and Mark Zuckerburg has recognized that. This is potentially dangerous to Facebook users as the company is figuring out everything about you; the more the company knows about you, the more relevant advertisements are. It’s an alarming cycle for those who don’t want all their information shared with the company. The problem with Facebook gathering the information is that we actually have no idea what they are collecting or how in-depth this actually goes. It could be getting into some extremely personal details and if they were to be hacked and all this data got leaked to the

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