Weekly Case Note #5 - Twitter
Twitter supplied an simple and effective service to users by providing an platform to share small messages globally. It is designed to accommodate social networking. Decisions to achieve a balance between revenue generating and privacy responsibilities of users. Twitter possesses a large database of information, including personal information, personal messages of users, and company information that can be traceable to users. The management is deciding whether to monetize their business model, while taking into account the legal and ethical obligations to users.
Problems/ Alternatives:
Main Issues: Users can distrust Twitter's use of their personal information, personal tweets an their activity. It uses logs, cookies, and servers to store the tweets both public and private. It might reveal information users don't want to make known, such as pictures, videos and geographic locations, and site activity. There is also societal pressure of people criticizing the stalking feeling of Twitter and there can be negative consequences of compromising information on people reputation of Twitter misuse.
There are many advantages of the data-mining initiative. Companies achieve an competitive advantage at the market, because they are able to gather data about customers and segment and target effectively in the market. For Twitter itself, it could achieve an greater market position in the market of social networking among large competitors. Twitter had always relied on venture capital, so therefore since it needs to able to generate revenue for long-term, this initiative will achieve that easily. It could provide data for anthropologists to study human behavior. It provides data of human interaction to psychologists and sociologists to study and research on. It can be an platform for lobbyists to rally and communicate information to change an unjust law. There are also many disadvantages of the data-mining initiative. It might get banned in different countries if government feels that is risking the privacy