Francisco A.

Mendoza
Dr. Melina Probst-Martin
English 1101
05 May 2016
Farmers Privacy
What is posted on Social Media, or the internet for that matter could be viewed by
millions of people. That is what many social media sites are intended to do, have an individuals
thoughts and ideas expressed and potentially have millions of people challenge that opinion,
agree, or flat out ignore it. How much sharing is too much sharing and how do we protect those
that share everything about themselves on a public domain. Privacy has always been a sensitive
issue for many individuals. and there are individuals that will try to embellish one thing or
another to try to make themselves seem a little more interesting.Which brings up the question of
how can we trust anything we see on social media or the internet for that matter, when it is
talking about a specific individual? Must we just hope that everyone is telling the truth about
themselves on their online profiles, and how do we validate such information without violating
users privacy? In the instance of Joe Jeffreys a farmer who created a profile on Farmers Unite,
an internet dating website, believes that he has been wronged by the website. Information, about
how much he made as a farmer was shared with the IRS, and he is being audited. Joe, who
neglected to read the terms and conditions prior to posting anything on his profile, feels that his
privacy has been violated by the site because he thought the information was not going to be
shared with anyone and that If Farmers Unite thinks I earn more than I do, perhaps it will
match me with more ladies! intends to sue the the website for damages. Joe Jeffreys the
farmer who feels that his privacy has been violated by the website, Farmers Unite, would not win

agains the website due to his neglecting to read the terms and conditions of how his information
would be stored and/or what could access it.
The internet has revolutionized the way individuals communicate with each other,
advertise products and themselves, but it has not been made easy without sacrificing a few
things. The art of reading and understanding what you are reading has been greatly diminished
due to social media and the internets easy of use. As stated in Nicholas Carrs article, Is Google
Making Us Stupid?, It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed
there are signs that new forms of reading are emerging as users power browse horizontally
through titles, connects pages and abstracts going for quick wins. It almost seems that they go
online to avoid reading in the traditional sense(Para. 7). Skimming the internet for a quick
response to questions that we dont understand. The sense of entitlement to the answer where and
when you want it without looking to see if a source is credible enough will continue to be the
downfall of this society. Such as the case with Mr. Jeffreys, power browse[ing] though the
terms and conditions without actually putting much effort into understand what he was reading,
as stated by his testimony in the scenario, is one of the reasons he will not prevail against he
Farmer Unite website. Since the internet does continue to change how to we protect ourselves
from the ever changing understanding of what is laid in front of us? How much of us has
changed? Is it even us that change?

Even though there have been some atrocities made on the internet there have been
instances that many were prevented due to key words that the government are tracking. All in the
name of national security and well being of the individuals of this country. The sacrifices that

have been made with the continued use of the internet are not all bad. As stated in Gopniks
article How the Internet Gets Inside of Us, states If youre going to give the printed book, or any
other machine-made thing, credit for all the good things that have happened, you have to hold it
accountable for the bad stuff, too. (Gopnik Para. 7). This can be said about the internet. EWe
can say the same thing and the opposite about the internet. The could be bad things said about the
internet and how it has affected many lives for the bad, but what about all the good that it has
done.
Of course one can argue, how far is too far when using a persons profile and their private
purchases? Such as the case of Facebook, with their Beacon and Social Ads services. In Daniel J.
Soloves article The End of Privacy, Social Ads,whenever users wrote something positive about
a product or a movie used names, images and words in advertisements send to fiends in the hope
that an endorsement would induce other users to purchase a product more than an advertisement
might and the Beacon service, If a person bought a movie ticket on Fandango or an item on
another site that information would pop up i that persons public profile( Par. 22). It is
understood that there would be more purchases of a certain product if it is recommended by a
friend, but to use someones private purchases to advertise is violation of ones privacy, in the case
of the Facebooks Beacon service. You then have to think about, what the terms and conditions
of Facebook were at the time. How many individual just did what Joe Jeffreys did and ignored
the terms and conditions and hit the accept button and never expected to see an advertisement
with their picture and name.
Joe Jeffreys was not wronged by Farmers Unite due to his negligence in ignoring the
terms and conditions. The internet can be a difficult place to navigate if everyone reads the terms
and conditions of every website that one enters. Websites programmer create these websites

terms and conditions to protect themselves, and be able to use a lot of the information that you
have put into the website. Privacy on the internet can be difficult, especially in the case of many
social media sites, as almost everything placed on a public social media site can be used with or
without protection or content from the user. We must be careful what is posted, as everything we
post can potentially follow us for the rest of our lives.

Work Cited
Carr, Nicholas. Is Google Making Us Stupid? The Atlantic July/ August 2008.
Gleick, James. How Google Dominates Us? The New York Review of Books August 2011.
Gopnick, Adam. How the Internet Gets Inside Us The Information: A Critic at Large.
February 2011.
Solove, Daniel J. The End of Privacy? Scientific American 2008. ,,