United Kingdom citizens unknowingly share their personal information with employers and the US.

Facebook in the Workplace

Take the case of Dixon v GB Eye Ltd; an employee was dismissed for posted a comment on Facebook about her coworkers in which she called them “the biggest bunch of wankers known to the human race! Full of gingers, fat wankers, sleazes, brown noses and cokeheads!”. This was considered to be a fair dismissal as her actions off and online represent herself as well as the company and the employees she was abusing.

The United Kingdom’s Employment Rights Act of 1996 states that employees of 2 or more years have a statutory right not to be unfairly dismissed. Employers must prove that they have a fair reason for dismissing their employees.

One case in which an employee was unfairly dismissed was in the case of Whitham v Club 24 Ltd t/a Ventura. This employee had merely stated “I think I work in a nursery and I do not mean working with plants”.

While there isn’t such thing as the Employment Rights Act in the United States, the National Labor Relations Board created the National Labor Relations Act, which allows them to regulate employee and company relationships.

Companies, as well as employees, like these
have to take into account that once something is on the internet, especially once on Facebook, it is almost impossible to remove all traces of it. Friends of friends of coworkers are easily able to print or save a post or comment that will eventually come around to create damage never imagined by it’s creator.

Max Schrems vs. Facebook

A recent lawsuit against Facebook ruled in favor of Max Schrems, a law student and activist, who had discovered that Facebook had been trafficking data about citizens of the United Kingdom to US authorities. He believes the recent ruling "could be a major issue for Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft or Yahoo [, as] all of them operate data centers in Europe”.

Schrems’ dispute with Facebook dates back to Edward Snowden’s leaks about the NSA surveillance scheme called Prism, which allowed US officials access to data about Europeans and other foreign citizens that was held by US tech firms, such as Facebook.

Schrems felt he had no protection over his data against this type of US surveillance. Facebook was targeted because it is the number one social media in the UK. Once limitations and stricter policy regulations are imposed on Facebook, the more than 4,000 US companies making use of this Safe Harbor principle, allowing them to facilitate data transfers, will be forced to stick to these regulations as well.

Facebook Usability

Facebook users in the United Kingdom participate in various activities while on Facebook. A study done by Lancaster University found that 77% of their participants logged on daily but for only about 5-15 minutes at a time. All of the participants rated Facebook to either be between average and easy to use, none saying that it was difficult to use.

The study found that the main reasons participants would visit Facebook would be to browse photos, check profiles of friends or join a group. Joining a network, using apps and adding apps were found to be the lowest ranking reasons that participants would log on to Facebook.

Top reasons for engaging with Facebook were found to be the user's curiosity as well as enjoyment. The user would be drawn through different parts on their Facebook based on their interest and curiosity in their friends pictures, or recent status; 'I wonder what they did this weekend' a user might think while browsing.

Facebook Use in Education

A study by Neil Selwyn looked educational related use of Facebook with students at the University of London. The most common use of Facebook that was educational related was in students' reflection of events, exchange of information and banter.

Posts of students that were reflections were often about lectures, discussions, library visits and even individual encounters with teaching staff. They would post in order to cover lectures to share with other students or just to let their friends know what they were doing at the time.

Students would also use Facebook as a platform to ask questions or share information, whether it be practical, a reminder that there is a test tomorrow, or academic; students asking questions about a homework assignment.

The final educational related use to Facebook was students' banter. That is, posts that include humorous remarks to frustrating assignments or classes. Many posts also were found to include fascination with professor's and assistant's lives outside of the university. One student was quoted saying "OH MY GOD the funniest thing just happened i was in the postgrad centre in the union with cat and there was an open-mic night-like just anyone could sing and ul never guess who was there... the one and only dr. peters howwwww funny!!!! he was actually quite good. back to the essays tomoz fun fun xxx".

Popularity of Facebook in the United Kingdom

Facebook is the most popular social media site around the world and this is not an exception in the United Kingdom. With over 1.4 billion active users around the world, Facebook has taken over the internet. Of the UK’s online population, 96% currently have a Facebook account, which adds up to over 31 million users. This number is staggering but not quite so much as the 156 million users in the United States.

Though there are not as many users in the UK, Facebook is still their most popular social media site, followed by Twitter and Instagram. The use and access to Facebook in the United Kingdom is almost identical to that in the US but certain policies and laws slightly differ and this has caused some law suits among citizens as well as between companies and their employees.