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→Privacy issues: "If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold"
==Privacy issues==
==Privacy issues==
Facebook's Privacy Policy is continuously changing. This is not for the benefit of the users but to the monetary value they represent to advertisers. Due to the size of Facebook, all kinds of data on users' habits are monitored. In fact, the U.S. government can peek at user's lives behind the scenes if it so chooses.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/17/13-year-old-boy-questioned-secret-service-facebook-posting/?test=latestnews 13-Year-Old Boy Questioned by Secret Service Over Facebook Posting, Fox News, May 17, 2011]</ref><ref>[http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_bbd23382-6ecf-11e0-aeef-001a4bcf6878.html Feds mine Facebook for info, STLToday.com, April 25, 2011]</ref> Facebook claims your personal information is not for sale. They make the case that it is anonymously collected data, thereby protecting your privacy. Third parties develop applications to run on top of Facebook. Your privacy is effectively in the hands of unknown organizations. The below examples include what information is on display by every user.
Facebook's Privacy Policy is continuously changing. This is not for the benefit of the users but to the monetary value they represent to advertisers. Due to the size of Facebook, all kinds of data on users' habits are monitored. In fact, the U.S. government can peek at user's lives behind the scenes if it so chooses.<ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/17/13-year-old-boy-questioned-secret-service-facebook-posting/?test=latestnews 13-Year-Old Boy Questioned by Secret Service Over Facebook Posting, Fox News, May 17, 2011]</ref><ref>[http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/article_bbd23382-6ecf-11e0-aeef-001a4bcf6878.html Feds mine Facebook for info, STLToday.com, April 25, 2011]</ref> Facebook claims your personal information is not for sale. They make the case that it is anonymously collected data, thereby protecting your privacy. Third parties develop applications to run on top of Facebook. Users' privacy is effectively in the hands of unknown organizations. The below examples include what information is on display by every user.
* The first 6 months of 2013, Facebook shared personal data with the U.S. Government about 39,000 Facebook users.<ref>[http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/08/just-peachy-facebook-shared-personal.html?m=0 JUST PEACHY: Facebook shared personal data of users a mere 26 thousand times in the first six months of 2013], [[Doug Ross]], August 27, 2013</ref>
* The first 6 months of 2013, Facebook shared personal data with the U.S. Government about 39,000 Facebook users.<ref>[http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2013/08/just-peachy-facebook-shared-personal.html?m=0 JUST PEACHY: Facebook shared personal data of users a mere 26 thousand times in the first six months of 2013], [[Doug Ross]], August 27, 2013</ref>
*The privacy settings on Facebook give users a false sense of security and encourage people to post things they shouldn't. As with other social networks, Facebook refuses to admit that its privacy settings that apparently allow only "friends" to see certain information are completely bogus and can easily be cracked by people with little to no [[hacking]] experience. Instead, Facebook actually ''encourages'' young users to only allow "friends" to see certain information, rather than just warning them that what they post can be seen by the world and to not post what they wouldn't want people to see.<ref>
*The privacy settings on Facebook give users a false sense of security and encourage people to post things they shouldn't. As with other social networks, Facebook refuses to admit that its privacy settings that apparently allow only "friends" to see certain information are completely bogus and can easily be cracked by people with little to no [[hacking]] experience. Instead, Facebook actually ''encourages'' young users to only allow "friends" to see certain information, rather than just warning them that what they post can be seen by the world and to not post what they wouldn't want people to see.<ref>
[http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/01/myspace_torrent This is why only a fool would trust any social networking platform to keep any information private]</ref>
[http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/01/myspace_torrent This is why only a fool would trust any social networking platform to keep any information private]</ref>
As a free service, it is reasonable to say that the users of facebook are the product, rather than the consumers. As Andrew Lewis is credited with saying, "If you are not paying for it, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold." This concept is not new, but it is still valid even though it was originally introduced in reference to television.<ref>https://books.google.com/books?id=gI_jNL7PN2QC&lpg=PA104&dq=tv%20you%20are%20the%20product&pg=PA104#v=onepage&q=tv%20you%20are%20the%20product&f=false</ref> Information is valuable to advertisers, since they can use it in targeted marketing. Facebook, like other social media services, makes use of the personal information provided to users to sell advertisements.
==Initial monetary value==
==Initial monetary value==