Governance and Privacy Limitations

The concept of governance as illustrated by Van Dijck (2013) analyzes the structural design of social media sites through distinguishing the specific ways communication and data traffic are monitored and managed (p 24). To do this, part of the structural organization will involve creating a Terms of Service or End-User License Agreement outlining specific roles, expectations, and privacy warnings (Van Dijck, 2013). These agreements are often presented when first creating an account on a site (Van Dijck, 2013). Although often overlooked, they often contain important information users should be wary of when sharing personal information online (Van Dijck, 2013). With this being a problem, many sites face ridicule for changing governance policies, however, most state within their Terms they are not obligated to inform the users of any changes made (Van Dijck, 2013). Topics that are often covered are privacy concerns, governmental infringements, account information, and social conduct on the site.

The governance model that Van Dijck (2013) considers proves to be a relevant concept to consider when understanding the privacy and uses of social media websites (p.24). Social media sites are platforms for communication purposes and to connect users, however, it is important to keep in mind that they are a business and one needs to look at the governance models they have designed to understand the terms of their use and what information they are providing to this domain (Van Dijck, 2013). These governing powers that are constantly there control the ways to which users use the interface (Van Dijck, 2013).


Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A Critical history of social media. New York: Oxford, UP.

Terms of Service

The governance model considers the use of terms of serivce as outlined by Van Dijck. Here is a look at the conditions that OKC has created for its users:

Important Sections in OKC Terms of Service
[1] Personal Safety Concerns
Recognizing that the site is used to meet potential suitors, the site notes that users must take caution before sharing personal information or meeting up with matches in person. The company does not perform any criminal background checks or have the technology in place to catch every catfish out there. By outlining this they give warning to users, and protect themselves from potential date failures or mishaps.

[2] Membership Information: basic outline of payment account options and renewal of memberships. Gives users the opportunity to benefit from extended services they wish to pay for and describes what that entails in terms of credit information, trail promotions and cancellation policies.

[3] Government Policies: this is common for all businesses to ensure that their business maintains their competitive advantage and distinguished organization. This includes information on copyright, patents, licensing. The company ensures that information on the pages cannot be copied without consequences, both by users and the company. It further outlines the process and steps one can take if they feel their information has been infringed or copied in some way.

[4] Profile and Conduct: similar to a lot of dating sites, conduct norms and profile appropriation is important to outline for the users. Users must, therefore, create a profile that matches their unique self. This is an attempt to eliminate the possibility of catfishing. As well, users must interact in a respectful and appropriate way with others users and within the site. If an active user is reported to be acting inappropriately they will be flagged and possibly removed from the site. This can include harmful language or behaviour, harassment, commercial use, and explicit content.

We can see the effectiveness of governance within a company especially OKC where users are constantly sharing personal information and interacting with other users in attempts to create unique relationships. Reading the ToS serve benefit to users as they can understand appropriate use of the website and understand what protective measure they should take to ensure their own safety. For a company, it allows them to protect and regulate themselves from user activity and ensure that the website is serving the purpose it was intended to do.
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Work Cited
OKCupid, (2016). Terms and conditions. Retrieved from https://www.okcupid.com/legal/terms
Van Dijck, J. (2013). The culture of connectivity: A Critical history of social media. New York: Oxford, UP.

Who Own's Your Data? Is it Safe with OKC?

Match.com is owned by IAC, which owns more than 50 companies and websites. IAC’s privacy policy allows it to share information freely between the many companies and websites it owns. As a result, users of OKC data can be shared freely among the 6^th largest online network in the world, which is not very private (Downey, 2011). OkCupid’s privacy policy states that if the ownership of all or substantially all of the OKC business or assets were to change, your user information would likely be transferred to the new owners (OkCupid, 2016). Under information they collect I found that OKC automatically collects information from your browser or device when you visit their website or application. Such information includes IP address, device ID, browser type and language. OKC may also receive information about its users from third party social platforms, such as Facebook. When users access their website or mobile app through such a site you allow them to access or collect information made available by third party sites. An interesting study was done on OKC by a couple of Danish researchers. They caused uproar by publishing data from 70,000 OkCupid users’ profiles (Hackett, 2016).

Some of the data collected included usernames, political leanings, drug usage, and intimate sexual details. The OKC research did not involve a security breach; however it did spark a controversy regarding the ownership of data and research ethics. Many individuals argue that the practice of collecting personal information on a massive scale without individual consent was a major breach of privacy, as well as social science ethics (Hackett, 2016). Sam Yagan explained that “there was no evidence that anyone had hacked the OkCupid deed – which would have required only sniffing the app’s Web traffic” (Schwartz, 2013). The researches explained that some may object to the ethics of gathering and releasing the data, however all the data found in the dataset was already publicly available online. No real names or pictures of the OKC users were leaked, but critics argue that their identities could easily be uncovered from the details provided. Below is a screenshot of one of the researchers Tweet about submitting their research paper and it sparking controversy about research ethics. 

References: 

Cox, J. (2016, May 12). 70,000 OkCupid Users Just Had Their Data Published . Retrieved from Motherboard Vice : http://motherboard.vice.com/read/70000-okcupid-users-just-had-their-data-published

Downey, S. A. (2011, February 10). Is you personal information safe on OkCupid. Retrieved from Abine : https://www.abine.com/blog/2011/is-your-personal-info-safe-on-okcupid/

Hackett, R. (2016, May 18). Researchers Caused an Uproar By Publishing Data From 70,000 OkCupid Users . Retrieved from Fortune : http://fortune.com/2016/05/18/okcupid-data-research/

OkCupid. (2016, July 1). OkCupid Privacy Policy . Retrieved from OkCupid : https://www.okcupid.com/legal/privacy

Schwartz, M. (2013). OkCupid Blind Date App: Beware Privacy Flub. Information Week. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.libproxy.wlu.ca/docview/1270603808?rfr_id=info:xri/sid:primo

Tynan, D. (2011, February 11). Is OkCupid's Dating Data Safe With Match.com. Retrieved from PC World: http://www.pcworld.com/article/219480/okcupid_data.html

Woollacott, E. (2016, May 13). 70,000 OkCupid Profiles Leaked, Intimate Details and All . Retrieved from Forbes : http://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2016/05/13/intimate-data-of-70000-okcupid-users-released/#7d406a0419bd

Business Models

Ok Cupid is an ad-supported website meaning majority of the money they make is from advertisers. In 2012, OkCupid realized that their internal ad-impression was not matching the advertisers, which were lower. After researching they realized it was because of the popularity of ad blockers. Ad blockers are the free web-browser extension that stop ads from appearing on a web page (Kauflin, 2013). The site was losing money so they created a solution. The created a notice that would be placed behind every ad. So when users with an ad blocker visited the site where the white space would be a message. It read "So normally there would be an ad in this spot. But you're using an ad blocker like a boss … Here's a solution: You donate $5 to us once, and we remove all ads from the site forever”. This message caused a spike in the donations. It was enough to make a large dent in the money they were losing from ad blockers. People were willing to pay the site directly with cash (Constine, 2012). 

OkCupid had a very popular article in their website titled Why You Should Never Pay for Online Dating. This article reflects their business model of being a free dating service. After being bought from Match.com (a paid dating site) for 50 million, the article disappeared. Match’s parent company IAC claims that OkCupid can “develop an appetite for the broader feature set and more committed community” and that Match.com can provide them that. Their reason for taking down the article is because they said some of their claims were assumptions (Quigley, 2011). The sale and the pulling of the article represent a shift in their business model.

References:

Constine, J. (2012). OkCupid Asks Ad-Blocker Users to Go Ad-free Forever for $5 with this

Smart, Funny Banner. techcrunch. 

Kauflin, J. (2013). OKCupid Asks Customers to Help Remove Ads from Site. Entrepreneur.

Quigley, R, (2011). OKCupid Pulls Article About “Why You Should Never Pay for Online Dating”

in Wake of Match.com Sale. The Mary Sue.

Content

            The content provided on OkCupid is very user based.  In order to get started, OkCupid’s website is set up in a way that allows users to browse matches who live within their area with ease.  Once users have completed an easy sign up process they are ready to find compatible matches.  In order to sign up as an OkCupid user, one must enter their gender, sexual orientation, birthday, postal code, e-mail, and then choose a username and password.  Users then begin generating content onto the OkCupid website by beginning their profile and entering an “About Me” paragraph, choosing to answer 7 yes or no questions to begin generating matches, and choosing 3 users that they believe to be their type.  Users are then able to begin browsing and communicating with their matches.  Users are able to click on each other’s usernames in order to browse their profile and view photos in more detail.  “Some of what we learned about effective photos on OkCupid was predictable: Women who flirt for the camera or show cleavage are quite successful…men did better when shown engaging in an interesting activity” (Ansari & Klinenberg, 2015).  If users believe that they have found a good match, they are able to message that user using an instant messaging tool.

In order for a user to accurately measure their compatibility with someone they are able to choose from hundreds of questions that will help to increase this compatibility.  Through OkCupid’s website, they make it very easy and straight forward to provide content in order to connect with users and potential matches.  “What intrigues me the most about the OkCupid blog is its ability to find meaning in what would seem to be a mess of Big ... no ... Huge Data-and then turn it into great content marketing.” (Cramer, 2013).

References

Ansari, A., & Klinenberg, E. (2015, June 13). How to Make Online Dating Work. The   New York Times.

Cramer, T. (2013, November). OkCupid: Another Big Data Success Story. EContent,   36(9).