The growing popularity of information technologies has significantly altered our world, and in particular, the way people interact. Social networking websites are becoming one of the primary forms of communication used by people of all ages and backgrounds. No doubt, we have seen numerous benefits from the impact of social media communication: We can easily meet and stay in touch with people, promote ourselves, and readily find information. However, these changes prompt us to consider how our moral and political values can be threatened. One common fear among users is that their privacy will be violated on the web. In her book, Privacy in Context, Helen Nissenbaum suggests a framework for understanding privacy concerns online. She focuses particularly on monitoring and tracking, and how four “pivotal transformations” caused by technology can endanger the privacy of our personal information. One website that may pose such a threat is Facebook. 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... ... middle of paper ... ... led to a diversification of the people who create and maintain them. This can be anyone. Putting personal information into the hands of a stranger is risky outside of the Internet, but even more so online. The ease and speed of the mobility of information means no information is safe on Facebook. Anyone who can see it can copy, save, or redistribute the information at will. A broad and deep aggregate source of information makes search and retrieval of anything posted on Facebook quick and easy. If somebody wants information about you they know how and where to look. Finally, this information can be passed along and analyzed in order to draw conclusions about you and your lifestyle. These can be stereotypical and false. Facebook and other social media sites, and more broadly information technology in general has greatly impacted our lives and our right to privacy.
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
“The standards of what we want to keep private and what we make public are constantly evolving. Over the course of Western history, we’ve developed a desire for more privacy, quite possibly as a status symbol…”(Singer) Technological change leads to new abuses, creating new challenges to security, but society adapts to those challenges. To meet the innate need for privacy, we learn what to reveal and where, and how to keep secret what we don't want to disclose. “Whether Facebook and similar sites are reflecting a change in social norms about privacy or are actually driving that change, that half a billion people are now on Facebook suggests that people believe the benefits of connecting with others, sharing information, networking, self-promoting, flirting, and bragging outweigh breaches of privacy that accompany such behaviours,”(Singer) This is obvious by the continuous and unceasing use of social media platforms, but what needs to be considered is that this information is being provided willingly. “More difficult questions arise when the loss of privacy is not in any sense a choice.”(Singer) When the choice to be anonymous it taken away through social media, the person loses the ability to keep their personal information
This is a critical review of “Facebook is Using You” by Lori Andrews. In the article, the author talks about the perils of our digital footprint and the vulnerability to consumers as others use our “personal” (Andrews 238) information against us. Our privacy in the age of information technology seems to be an uncharted territory in the U.S., which according to the author there are no laws to protect consumers.
The personal connection Americans have with their phones, tablets, and computers; and the rising popularity of online shopping and social websites due to the massive influence the social media has on Americans, it is clear why this generation is called the Information Age, also known as Digital Age. With the Internet being a huge part of our lives, more and more personal data is being made available, because of our ever-increasing dependence and use of the Internet on our phones, tablets, and computers. Some corporations such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook; governments, and other third parties have been tracking our internet use and acquiring data in order to provide personalized services and advertisements for consumers. Many American such as Nicholas Carr who wrote the article “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, With Real Dangers,” Anil Dagar who wrote the article “Internet, Economy and Privacy,” and Grace Nasri who wrote the article “Why Consumers are Increasingly Willing to Trade Data for Personalization,” believe that the continuing loss of personal privacy may lead us as a society to devalue the concept of privacy and see privacy as outdated and unimportant. Privacy is dead and corporations, governments, and third parties murdered it for their personal gain not for the interest of the public as they claim. There are more disadvantages than advantages on letting corporations, governments, and third parties track and acquire data to personalized services and advertisements for us.
To begin with, various websites are violating our privacy by selling our data to third party companies. Today accumulation of personal information is escalating using technology tools all over the world without permission of an individual. Precisely, social networking sites such as Facebook collects information actively while websites such as Google passively. Facebook allows strangers to view anyone’s profile and systematically eliminates privacy for those who choos...
When it comes to social networking and social media websites people are very careless and put any and all information up for everyone to see. That is great for the people that don’t care about everyone seeing their information, but what happens to all of the people that want to have their personal profiles private? There should always be an option for users to keep their profiles private, but you have to remember that it is the Internet, so how private can they be? Websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram seem to go out of their way to get you to enter your information. When creating profiles these websites want all of your personal information, the only thing you don’t enter into your registration is your credit card number. It seems a little crazy that they are all so desperate to have and to hold your personal information on file, but I am sure they have reasoning behind it. They do offer the option for you to make your profile private, but there are ways to still viewing a private profile. In the article, “Are you Worried About Your Personal Information? – Privacy Issues in Social Networking Websites”, author Lui Fan speaks of how operators of social networking websites upload peoples information to the server or to the cloud. This is very frightening, because it seems as if an operator is controlling
Facebook : Every single day we read the news ,and think that Facebook might be antiprivacy. It is also observed that people often think that social networking sites offer complicated privacy settings. The CEO...
Facebook collects a lot of information, which the users share, and the way it has used and protected this information has come under scrutiny quite a few times in the past. The purpose of this report was to find the ways in which the information is shared on the website and the control the user has over how the information is shared. Most of the data in this report was collected from Facebook’s official data use policy.
Facebook privacy and security have many benefits, problems, and challenges. There is a benefit for every security setting on Facebook but the real concern comes along when it comes to facing the problem and how this problem goes into different steps of challenges, and how we can fix that problem in order for privacy not to be a huge issue. A person that has access to Facebook wants to share their everyday moments to the world such as sharing personal posts, photos and videos, and that’s what Facebook is basically known for.
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.
Although social media is a healthy channel for personal interactions among friends and peers for the youth of today, the lack of understanding about online privacy creates a severe threat on multiple levels. Many teenagers and young adults remain oblivious to the consequences of their online posts and have little to no discretion when sending personal information to...
Social Media sites such as Facebook, today have made precautions regarding privacy on the web. These settings to help keep the users privacy in check. Even though they settings on sites have gotten more intense, can theses protection possibly cause more problems? According to “Mark Zuckerberg’s Theory of privacy” the website was created with the intention to create “a more open and connected world.” There are advantages to having a more connected word there are also some draw backs. Even though social media has created faster and more advanced way to get the word out, and be aware of the new world around its users, it has also created a world with little privacy. This is because more and more people willing to share their information online, in today’s world that revolves around technology.
I think Facebook is an great tool to connect with others and share creatively, emotionally, and so on. One can communicate with a long lost friend while listening to their favorite music and reading about the latest gossip within the celebrity world. One may find inspiration through Facebook to teach others or help victims of the latest natural disaster by reading a news article relating to the event. Or one my change their occupation by seeing jobs posted through their Facebook or maybe someone just wants to imitate the newest socialite making headlines from their posts. Either way, one uses Facebook to feel connected with the world around them and interact with people they feel that share this same ideal of digital significance. We are still in the beginning stages of this forever evolving digital culture and I am sure we will witness the next great technological device or new source of new media that will change everything. I feel if things progress in the way they already are we will literally be able to do and see anything and everything within minuets from our mobile devices. We will know and see whatever we want and be connected to whomever we want to socially connect to. I am just waiting for the day when we can actually block people in real life or
Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other. But some argue that Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. Users can upload pictures, update statuses, play games, get news, add people, like and share photos, videos, memes