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The effect of social media on our privacy
The effect of social media on our privacy
The effect of social media on our privacy
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Up to date, social networking sites, such as Facebook, have more than 750 million active users, and these users contribute about of 30 billion pieces of shared information (blogs, web links, pictures, etc.) each month. This by no means indicates that social networking sites, similar to Facebook, are a private place. Every “log in to Facebook” you click to connect to other websites, every status update on your wall, with every Twitter post, or Foursquare check-in you allow others to view your life so why not a future employer or the school you go to? Mainstream society has started to fully embrace the digital age; therefore, several people, companies, schools; governments, etc. have come to allow their information to be viewed by whoever has a device that connects to the Internet. With that, your online identity and “real life” persona now blend into one single identity that both worlds can easily view with just a few simple facts like your name or e-mail address. Because of the ability to freely distribute information across social networks, people who use them should not be entitled to privacy.
When a person joins Facebook, they become “publicly available” to the Internet. Facebook writes, "Such information may, for example, be accessed by everyone on the Internet (including people not logged into Facebook), be indexed by third party search engines, and be imported, exported, distributed, and redistributed by us and others without privacy limitations." In simpler terms, once you put it out there, it’s out there and there is no turning back. With every single website you join, you sign away your rights to privacy if you read the “Terms & Policies” section that every website advises you to read whether you do or not. What info...
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Using the informal tone he enhances his argument by providing several thought-provoking statements that allow the reader to see the logic in the article, “Social media is designed for the information shared on it to be searched, and shared- and mined for profit… When considering what to share via social media, don 't think business vs. personal. Think public vs. private. And if something is truly private, do not share it on social media out of a misplaced faith in the expectation of privacy” (134). The reader should agree with Edmond that when posting or being a part of the social media bandwagon, you’re life and decisions will be up for display. Moreover, the business vs. personal and public vs. private point is accurate and logical, because evidently if you post something on any social media outlet you should expect that anyone and everyone can see it, regardless of your privacy settings. Edmond highlights that Facebook along with other social networking sites change their privacy settings whenever they please without
Jeff Jarvis is a journalist, professor, and public speaker. In his book, “Public Parts”, Jarvis’s own opinions on “publicness” are stated plainly. He sees both social and personal benefits to living a totally public life on the internet. David Kirkpatrick is a technology journalist and author. He offers no opinion of his own on subject of total public disclosure. He has written two books on the social media giant Facebook. Kirkpatrick’s book “The Facebook Effect” was reviewed by David Pogue in The New York Times, Sunday Book Review. Pogue wrote, “You come away with a creepy new awareness of how a directory of college students is fast becoming a directory of all humanity — one that’s in the hands of a somewhat strange 26-year-old wearing a T-shirt and rubber Adidas sandals.” His book may leave readers more cautious than ever about what information they themselves are uploading to the
It is not a technological problem, it is a legal problem. In the Facebook & Your Privacy, the author point out that "In the U.S. online privacy laws are weaker than those of Europe and much of the world, so you have few federal rights to see and control most of the information that social networks collect about you."(Facebook & Your Privacy) I find numerous legal cases of Facebook privacy issue in the European Unions, however, I only find several cases in the US. Due to the privacy law is one of the fundamental law in the EU, Europeans pay attention on their privacy. On the other hand, the US absence of a Federal-Level privacy protection law. The courts need to recognize that in the technology age, people have both virtual privacy and physical privacy. People should be able to control their own data, regardless of where it is stored. People should be able to make decisions about the security and privacy of that data. The Congress and Supreme Court should set a complete legal system of privacy in the internet, just as the Supreme Court eventually ruled that recording cell phone conversation was a Fourth Amendment search, requiring a
When we mention the word ‘privacy’, we mean that there is something very personal about ourselves. Something that we think others are not supposed to know, or, we do not want them to. Nevertheless, why is it so? Why are people so reluctant to let others know about them entirely? This is because either they are afraid of people doing them harm or they are scared that people may treat them differently after their secrets are known. Without privacy, the democratic system that we know would not exist. Privacy is one of the fundamental values on which our country was established. Moreover, with the internet gaining such popularity, privacy has become a thing of the past. People have come to accept that strangers can view personal information about them on social networking sites such as Facebook, and companies and the government are constantly viewing a person’s activity online for a variety of reasons. From sending email, applying for a job, or even using the telephone, Americans right to privacy is in danger. Personal and professional information is being stored, link, transferred, shared, and even sold. Various websites, the government and its agencies, and hospitals are infringing our privacy without our permission or knowledge.
With social media websites being the main hub of personal information, advertisers are consistently monitoring our social media activity, having the ability to look into our personal information. In the article "Advertising and Consumer Privacy: Old Practices and New Challenges." by Justine Rapp states, “Fueled by advances in capabilities and interconnectedness of computer based technology, advertisers are able to collect and assimilate information on consumers like no other time history” (51). Facebook has become the number one, social media website around the globe. It is the most popular website used by personal and business users in today’s society. In the article “Using Social Media to Reach Consumers: A Content Analysis of Official Facebook Pages” by Amy Parsons states, “As of July 2011, the social network site Facebook claims to have over 750 million members and in the terms of activity.” (27), making it easy to meet and connect with others. Facebook is considered the “hot spot” for online social activity, however, it exposes personal information about its consumers to
(Jutras, 2009) Jutras, L. (2009, December 7). Facebook mobilizes masses - but what for?. Globe & Mail. Retrieved from http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=News&disableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE|A213685324&mode=view
Social media companies have complete control a their users information and can do what they want with it. Now if those companies went spreading the information, no one would use their sites but they can make changes to privacy setting that make it easier for anyone to view information of other users. For example, Facebook has privacy settings so your information is not out for public viewing, but a while back they changed the default privacy setting to make all your information viewable to the public unless you changed it. There was an uproar and everyone felt they were trying to be sneaky about it because they did not give any notice when they did it, but Facebook claimed they were not trying to do anything fallacious. Social media companies have to be careful when doing anything with privacy settings because people get extremely defensive regarding their information. There is also a level of comfort that comes with age. The older generations have no trust when it comes to putting their information online. Most feel as if they are being tricked in some way. But the generation kids are growing up in now, all their trust is put in the internet. Kids and young adults will put all their information online because that is how the world functions. In today’s world, if you are not putting all your information online and using your phone and laptop to get everything done, you are inefficient. And this
Perhaps the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said it best when he claimed that privacy is no longer a “social norm.” Virtually everyone has a smart phone and everyone has social media. We continue to disclose private information willingly and the private information we’re not disclosing willingly is being extracted from our accounts anyway. Technology certainly makes these things possible. However, there is an urgent need to make laws and regulations to protect against the stuff we’re not personally disclosing. It’s unsettling to think we are living in 1984 in the 21st century.
The issues caused by online privacy are growing with the increase of Social Networking Sites. Virtually all Social Networking Sites have ‘public’ as their default privacy setting, however that is not what the majority of users prefer. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project & American Life, 80 % of the users go to the effort to change their settings to private. With the increasing awareness of cyber – crime and the need for privacy, users have now started to rethink their actions online. Carefully selecting whom among your Facebook friends see your personal information, and who should be restricted, blocked or unfriended.
The 21st century has brought a lot of modern ideas, innovations, and technology. One of these is social media. The invention of Facebook has completely changed the way we communicate with one another. Instant messaging, photo sharing, and joining online groups have created a way for families and friends to connect. Some argue that Facebook is the greatest invention however, while it is seemingly harmless, Facebook has created an invasion of privacy. The accessibility of Facebook and its widespread use has created privacy problems for users, teens, and interviewees by allowing easy control to viewers.
With more than 500 million active users, the site is a warehouse of personal information. Personal profiles allow users to provide information about their name, age, hometown, relationship status, activities, job, school, and more. They can connect with the others’ profiles and become ”friends”. Combined with a profile picture, you can pretty much learn anything you want to know about somebody over Facebook (should they choose to provide the information). However, what many users fail to realize is that in most cases this information is not only available to their “friends”. Though users can change their privacy settings to limit with whom their profile information is shared, the site gathers and stores more than most of us want to acknowledge. For instance, the Facebook “Like” butto...
Stout, Kay. "The battle of full disclosure on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, Orkut et al." Another Point of View. N.p., 20 Nov 2009. Web. 1 Apr. 2014. .
Keeping your privacy is getting harder and harder to do, but even though the privacy setting can help to an extent, they don’t always work the way they should. Putting information out for the public eye to see can be a risk but could also be used to the Facebook users advantage. With this comes a loss of privacy that the user has to deal with. No matter how many privacy settings are used or are changed they never a guaranty of full privacy. The only real way to guaranty this is to stay away from social media completely. With that we would lose the connected world we have today.
Vinson, Kathleen Elliott. "The Blurred Boundaries of Social Networking in the Legal Field: Just "Face" it." The University of Memphis Law Review 41.2 (2010): 355. ProQuest Research Library. Web. 7 May 2014.
Social media sites make it easy to access and share private information, which allows users to be manipulated by marketers who use this information to present specific advertisements. People who have accounts on websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn often reveal more personal information than intended, making it easy to become careless with posting things online. In the Forbes article “Social Media Privacy: A Contradiction In Terms?” Naomi Troni states “With all the time we spend online and all the forums we frequent, it’s no wonder most of us have grown accustomed to doling out little snippets of personal information with