Understanding the Relationship of Online Privacy and Social Media using #DeleteFacebook (COM 638)

We live in a world where, in a matter of minutes, users share the most personal pieces of information freely to strangers across the globe. With over 3,000 words in the Facebook user agreement and its use of “lay-man’s terms” language, we would hope that the respect of privacy and our personal information would be absolute. However, the realization that our information is “for sale” can often be a jarring and concerning one. We live in a society where information truly is power and there is no limit to how entities can get their hands on it.

With a user database that exceeds one billion users, it’s no wonder that Facebook has become the center of most global privacy discussions. When the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in spring of 2018, the global digital and data privacy conversation was catapulted into the spotlight. We believe we live in a society where we promote that the respect to privacy is assumed between consumers and companies. In this paper, we’ll be observing the power of communicating data violations and the impacts to the users. We’ll also take a better look at understanding the power these platforms hold targeted marketing and the significance of data mining. We’ll be observing the emerging conversation by users in hopes to better understand the social media’s relationship and user impact of the right to data privacy in the digital space.