Is Our Privacy Really Private?

By Devi Bridgemohan

Staff Reporter

There’s a chance you might have been affected by the recent Facebook scandal.

Facebook has been under fire after improperly sharing the data of up to 87 million people with Cambridge Analytica.

Amid these scandals, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been testifying in front of the U.S Senate to address the company’s issues.

He has since apologized repeatedly for the company’s handling of data privacy.

“I started Facebook, I run it, and I’m responsible for what happens here,” said Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg argued that the average person does not know about privacy policies. If this is the case, then exactly how comfortable are you giving your information to Facebook?

“I absolutely feel comfortable giving all my information to Facebook,” said junior Jake Mazza. “Our information is already out there and it hasn’t truly affected me in any way, so I don’t understand what people are upset about.”

Mazza believes it shouldn’t be a surprise to the users if our private information is taken.

“People have been data mining for years, so they had plenty of opportunities to avoid this, but chose to use the product anyway,” said Mazza.

Mazza has a Facebook account and uses it exclusively to keep in contact with friends and family.

“I have a Facebook because it’s an easy to use product that lets me keep in contact with friends and family all across the world,” said Mazza.

Despite the scandal, Mazza won’t stop using Facebook.

“Convenience comes at a price in this instance, which is your information being able to be sold by Facebook,” said Mazza. “They even bought WhatsApp, which doesn’t make money because they know the value of each individual’s information.”

While some students are comfortable with their information being out in the open, others would prefer to tread lightly with Facebook.

“I do feel comfortable with giving my information to Facebook, but only to a certain level,” said freshman Mike Wasserman.

“I feel okay giving the website my birthday and things of that nature,” said Mazza. “But when my data gets given out to the highest bidder is where I draw the line.”

Students voiced that it’s mostly general information that they’re using on their Facebook accounts.

“I am comfortable with giving my information to Facebook because it’s nothing too personal that I am giving them,” said freshman Nick Romano. “It’s all general information.”

“I feel I have a choice because I could just choose not to put it in,” said Romano.

As for the reason why he uses Facebook, Romano said to watch videos.

Other students believe it’s all up to the individual and whether they choose to post personal information or not.

“I feel comfortable giving limited information to Facebook because I already share that basic information on other apps, so it’s obvious, but I don’t share extremely personal information on there,” said freshman Isabel Pagliazzo.

Although Pagliazzo doesn’t use Facebook often, she still believes it’s an ideal place to keep in contact with the people she’s close to.

“I think it’s a convenient place to share a lot of photos at once and organize photos by year or event,” said Pagliazzo. “It’s also easy to connect with family and friends, but I rarely ever go on and just scroll through my feed,” she said.

As for how she feels about the scandal, Pagliazzo is concerned with how easy it is for a person’s information to be leaked.

“It’s scary how someone could easily take your information and know basically your whole life story without your permission,” said Pagliazzo.

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