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Hashemi, Yasamine. "FACEBOOK’S PRIVACY POLICY AND ITS THIRD-PARTY PARTNERSHIPS: LUCRATIVITY AND LIABILITY." Boston University School of Law Journal of Science and Technology Law 15.1 (2009): n. pag. Web. 17 Apr 2010.

In her article Yasamine Hashemi examined the history and popularity behind Facebook. Hashemi also asserted early on that much of the social networking sites popularity was due to its “free” nature, since there is no cost for a user to join or maintain a site and the website receives it’s funding through advertising revenue. While many websites including Google have made vast amounts of revenue through advertising, Hashemi claims that Facebook took the practice further than other advertisers. Hashemi writes that early on that, “(Facebook) started delivering ads to a user’s “friends,” with the user’s name, photos, and endorsements attached; and it started tracking user activities on third-party websites, announcing these activities to the user’s friends, and delivering ads relevant to those activities.” Though these actions did not go over well when they discovered were discovered by Facebook’s growing online community, there still may be nothing illegal about Facebook’s advertising practices. In addition to looking into this issue Yasamine Hashemi also delivers a brief history of Facebook and the various means it has allowed itself to contact its users. Two of the main design choices Facebook made which alienated many of its users was the implementation of the “Social Ads” program which took records of a users page activity and used it to create advertising for their friends. The other “Beacon” program which tracked a users movements on “partner websites.” Shortly after the implementation of these programs on November 7th, 2007 many of Facebook’s users created or joined various protest groups to communicate their displeasure with these practices. Hashemi then writes on other instances where Facebook Inc. has attempted to make user information more easily accessible to advertisers and the resulting backlash by its user base. It would appear that these public relations issues would be enough to give Facebook Inc. pause before implementing sweeping changes to user accounts, but this is not the case as they proved when they quietly altered the user “terms of use” policy without alerting its users.

If one were to question whether social networking sites such as Facebook should be trusted with their user’s personal information, Yasamine Hashemi’s article would be an excellent resource to consider because its focus on Facebook’s various advertising programs. While there are many articles that detail the potential threats to a users privacy by other users (including potential employers and Law enforcement), Hashemi presents the danger as possibly coming from one of Facebook’s many advertising initiatives. She also provides various examples of how Facebook Inc. has used user information in the past and how they have ultimately lost the trust of some of its users. Hashemi’s article is also important to examine on the basis that her critique of Facebook is not given to demonizing the company but rather explores their possible motivations for the changes they have implemented. This is demonstrated when she acknowledges the fact that is often forgotten or ignored by its users, Facebook is a business and therefore has to be able to make a profit. By not charging a subscription fee Facebook has had to use advertising as a means of generating revenue. Hashemi also acknowledges that while Facebook did gather information on it’s users it was for the express purpose of gathering only marketing information to create more pertinent advertisements for its users. Hashemi acknowledges that this practice has been employed by other online companies in the past; she gives Google as an example. Google has done many of the same things in the past including the collection of data pertaining to the users browsing history to provide advertising that would be the most appealing to the user’s tastes. Hashemi asserts that while the practices between Facebook and Google were similar Facebook took the practice further by using the users name and likeness in advertising on their friends Facebook pages. Hashemi’s insight into the practical reasons as to why Facebook Inc. would make these design choices, is an important factor to take into account when questioning whether a user can trust Facebook with their personal information or not.