Ethics

Ethics
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In his research, Alexandra Korolova explores the privacy violation issues that arise from micro-targeted advertisements carried out on social media platforms. Micro-targeting entails sampling process based on structured segmentation of a company’s target audience. Micro-targeted advertisement hence involves running an ad based on the defined criteria (Barbu, 2013, p. 45). Majority of social media platforms require their users to reveal private information such as status, birth, likes, and interests, which the company then uses to match up with the advertiser’s target audience’s specifications (Korolova, 2011, pp. 27-28). Relaying of sensitive information by users has triggered privacy violation issues, yielding problems to the modern world.
Some of the contemporary issues that have resulted from the privacy violations as a result of micro-targeting are hacking, physical harassment/assault and cyberbullying (Cohen, 2017). The relaying of information such as one’s gender, age, and location (Korolova, 2011, p.29); makes them easy to pick out using micro-targeted ads, making them prone to offenders. The repercussions are usually mental or physical harm, as was the case for Mallory, a New Jersey girl who committed suicide due to advanced cyberbullying (Rosenblatt, 2017).
The recent implication of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 US presidential elections by using micro-targeted ads on social media platforms such as Twitter, and Facebook (Goldstein, 2017), shows the extent of privacy violation.

Rubinstein (2014, p. 861), explains that in the modern political era, politicians rely on data-driven campaigns in which they assemble sensitive information regarding potential voters, without regard of their privacy and manipulate the facts to suit them.
Privacy violation using micro-targeted ads on social media has also aided in promoting radicalization of violent extremists. Waldman and Verga (2016, p.1) define violent extremism as “destructive actions or support for such actions undertaken by groups or individuals formally or informally affiliated with them.” Terrorism incidents and reports have recently been making headlines in the mass media. This can be attributed to the fact that the internet specifically social media has made it easier for them to operate. According to Conway et.al (2017, p.280), terrorist groups such as ISIS employ micro-targeting as a way of distributing “sophisticated propaganda.”
Terror groups such as ISIS have taken advantage of free online speech and created online chat rooms on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter where sympathizers can network and exchange violent and extremist information (Conway et.al, 2017, p.280). According to Wihbey (2015), there are over 46,000 twitter accounts operated by ISIS supporters. The sympathizers are recruited by running micro-targeted ads (videos and materials), that radicalize them based on their bio information, interests, comments and location Wihbey (2015). This is attributed to the poor privacy protection policies and intimidation of social and mass media employees, enabling terror groups to push their agendas and find potential recruits to their cause.
The violation of privacy using micro-targeted ads violates some ethical codes and standards. These include accountability, client confidentiality, and transparency. Most social media sites have lack rigid confidentiality policies, putting client information at breach risk. The sites also, knowingly or otherwise, violate accountability and transparency by failing to explain to their clients on how advertisement algorithms work; that is, the criteria under which advertising content is shown to them. YouTube could, for instance, elaborate why they chose to recommend an ad for you (Beresford, 2017).
To remedy the raised contemporary issues, Cohen (2017), suggests that users create strong passwords that are not relatable to any demographic information such as age, dates of birth or name, review privacy options on social sites and avoid oversharing personal information. As for online platforms, Korolava (2011, p. 42) recommends that social media sites only choose a target audience for advertisers based on publicly shared information and not data from information hidden by the client.
References
Barbu, O. (2013). Advertising, microtargeting and social media. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 163, 44-49.
Beresford, T. (2017, June 07). Designing the Office of the Social Media Regulator – a blueprint. Retrieved February 13, 2018, from https://medium.com/@tobyberesford/designing-the-office-of-the-social-media-regulator-a-blueprint-890bd5cd395aCohen, S. (2017, November 16). Privacy Risk with Social Media. Retrieved February 13, 2018, from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-cohen/privacy-risk-with-social-_b_13006700.htmlConway, M., Jarvis, L., &Lehane, O. (Eds.). (2017). Terrorists’ Use of the Internet: Assessment and Response (Vol. 136). IOS Press.
Goldstein Associate Professor of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University, S. C. (2017, October 19). Solving the political ad problem with transparency. Retrieved February 13, 2018, from https://theconversation.com/solving-the-political-ad-problem-with-transparency-85366Korolova, A. (2011, December). Privacy violations using microtargeted ads: A case study. In Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW), 2010 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 474-482). IEEE.
Rosenblatt, K. (2017, August 01). Cyberbullying Tragedy: New Jersey Family to Sue After 12-Year-Old Daughters Suicide. Retrieved February 13, 2018, from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-jersey-family-sue-school-district-after-12-year-old-n788506Rubinstein, I. S. (2014). Voter privacy in the age of big data. Wis. L. Rev., 861.
Waldman, S., & Verga, S. (2016). Countering violent extremism on social media.
Wihbey, J. (2015, March 10). Social and News Media, Violent Extremism, ISIS an Online Speech: Research Review. Retrieved February 14, 2018, from https://journalistsresource.org/studies/society/social-media/social-media-violent-extremism-isis-online-speech-research-review