Commentary: Facing Facebook: Idealistic Social Project or American Company?

What impresses us the most about this quick look at Facebook is that the writer, a resident of Stockholm, is just as concerned about the CIA as we, even though he's well outside the "official" grasp of the U.S. government. Perhaps we're not so paranoid after all.

What is Facebook? Is Facebook an idealistic social project allowing people to become friends worldwide or an American company making money?

You can get the idea that Facebook is a idealistic project helping people worldwide to become friends, but Facebook is an American company that collects the users personal information based on, for example, age, gender, interests, hobbies, Internet behaviour, buying patterns and education to sell to their associated companies.

It might surprise you that the user conditions of Facebook states that users are not allowed to make contact with people that they do not previously know. Such a contact can result in Facebook closing your account without previous warning and without explanation. This is done daily on Facebook. The reason behind this is that Facebook wants you to invite new friends, so that they can gain access to new personal information to sell to their associated companies.

Facebook has denied that they sell information to organizations like the CIA, but at the same time they say that they can not take any responsibility for investigations by third parties on Facebook. For example, Facebook encourages users to write their correct birth information on their pages. This is because Facebook can then sell the information about age to their associated companies, but Facebook is also aware that this information can be used for identity theft.

Facebook has also launched a program called Beacon, which allows them to keep track of Facebook users on other websites on the Internet to monitor their Internet behaviour and bying patterns. This raises serious questions about personal integrity.

Caution is adviced when it comes to updating personal information and photos on Facebook. According to the user conditions, Facebook will keep the photos and personal information you put up even if you close the account. This might constitute a copyright infringement.

There is massive criticism against the business methods of Facebook on the Internet and lawsuits have also been filed against Facebook and are currently going on.