Freedom at Crossroads in Digitized World: Social Media Constructs Driving out Data Privacy Ethics

The classical market economy model as proposed by Adam Smith insisted on freedom of the agents and fairness of procedures as the natural order of business. In the contemporary scenario, digital revolution has created spaces and models of business which challenge the very foundation of free market economy i.e. freedom and fairness. Consumer trust is a pivotal component for thriving in service industries such as social media platforms. Social media business models in contemporary times trade personal information of users, knowingly or unknowingly, without an effective and informed consent and raise concerns for need and efficacy of evolving a framework for data privacy ethics. This research attempts a comprehensive understanding of how personal data monetization is violating user freedom and fairness. Ensuring user freedom to enable active decision making about her own data provides benchmarks for ethical service and upholds ethics in services. The research analyses pertinence of normative ethical theories and their application on driving issues of data privacy and transparency in perspective and considers how data privacy models can be improved to ensure rights of users and embed freedom and fairness in social media business models.