Facebook privacy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Facebook privacy - Research Paper Example nd, the majority of young Americans, who constitute the largest proportion of the users of Facebook and other social networking sites, worry less about their privacy. In February 2011, DHS announced that they planned to roll out a program that would make it possible for them to censor media content, including data relating to social media(Wagner 390). The program would gather personal data of the users of Facebook and other social networking sites and relay that information to all levels of government, foreign government and private companies. In part, the data would be gathered by undercover agents who would disguise as ordinary social media users while, in the real sense, they were on these sites to spy on genuine users. The agency also indicated that it would store personal data for a period not exceeding five years. This program sounded so sinister that one wonders why the DHS had to announce it. Nonetheless, under the program, the government has continued to collect the personal information of the users of Facebook. This program and the policy underpinning it are a serious infringement on the civil liberties, especially the right to privacy, the Constitution grants to every American. The government must abandon them and seek alternative ways of achieving their ways. The journey toward a federal policy on the freedom of Internet kicked off to a slow start in early 2010(Wagner 398). Then, in early 2011, the Egyptian revolt, to which Twitter and Facebook added fuel, injected some impetus into the process. The development in Egypt made the federal government see the urgent need for a policy that would help security agencies circumvent barriers to combating cyber crime, while at the same time making it difficult for dictatorial regimes to employ the same technology to suppress divergent views. The process of enacting the policy was slowed down by heated debates over which projects the policy needed to prioritize. Moreover, questions were raised over the rather