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The effects of social networking on privacy

General Framework

Many could term social networking as a whole as an inhibitor to privacy but it is undoubtedly a great invention. Social networking is a structure that comprises social actors such as organizations or individuals and fixed connections among the social actors. It mainly comprises a community of people who use technology and websites like MySpace, Facebook, Linked, Friendster, twitter and other social media to share information and communicate with each other. Social networking websites are designed to let multiple social actors to publish any subject or share information, personal messages and ideas to their employees, mates, friends and employers. However, many people arbor the view that social networking has only served to hinder people’s privacy. This is despite its positive impacts and the measures the various sites have taken to assure of people’s privacy. I will therefore, in my research, seek to weigh the various security measures the sites have adopted versus the privacy risks associated with social networking.

The intrusion of privacy and access to classified personal information could cause rifts both at the individual and family set ups. This has the potential of adversely ruining family relationships. This due to the publication of personal and family information online which gets permanent online and end up being visible to many people. The fact that the social media is used by both the elderly and the teenagers, the children get to know immoral habits and other classified secrets of their parents. On the other hand the parents are also able to access the depraved communication their children make with their peers. As a result of this exposure of family issues and personal information, the nature of privacy on social media is a complex issue that needs to be researched well.

Most privacy intrusion incidences are linked to the lack of knowledge or ignorance of users. For instance, people share such intimate information on social sites without regard of who the consumers of such information are on the sites. Users in the sites are thus able to link the intimate posts with the personal information the user has provided on their profiles. The personal information targeted includes both residential addresses and contact information. This could be taken as abuse of the freedom of expression that social media provides. However, it is a responsibility of the site developers to enlighten users on the sensitivity of the information they provide and how disastrous it could turn out to be. Examples could be warning banners or video clips in addition to the terms of use they provide. In the study, I will therefore gauge the response of users to the diverse efforts of the site developers to disseminate proper usage policies. It could be the users to blame and not entirely the social sites.

Specific Focus

Social sites play an important role in the society. For instance, LinkedIn is a professional networking that plays a significant role in linking job seekers with potential employers. It profiles both the job seekers and available opportunities. This information could be used harmfully when it gets to wrong hands thus soiling the good intention of the site developers. Important research considerations will therefore revolve around the issues of impersonation and illegal data mining.

Though it is true that social networking has advanced the performance of many workplaces globally, it is still facing the challenge of securing the information of its users. The latter is what many critics term as an infringement to the right to privacy. This is because social networking has turned into a large data treasure of individual records that include names, schooling and residence details and a track of someone’s activities. Research and advertising organizations will definitely find this data treasure enticing. It will therefore be interesting to find out how the various social sites protect user data from interested agencies.

Wikileaks, founded by Julian Assange provided snapshots on the sensitivity of personal records uploaded on social media. In fact, Julian is quoted as saying that social networking “is the most hateful spying tool” in use to date. He made the statement when referring to the access of social networks, especially Facebook, by spying agencies. In the wikileaks releases, he quotes the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and FBI as having obtained user personal records from Facebook without the knowledge of the owners. In fact, worldwide states have been reported to having been allowed access to personal records of users under criminal investigations. Though this could be necessary to prevent instances of cyber-attacks, users should be informed on what information they upload will be available to state investigation agencies. The research will therefore seek to study the various support information, terms and conditions that the sites provide to users as their open their accounts.

Another interesting research area that I would like to expound on my research is the instances of cyber-attacks or physical attacks directed at innocent individuals due to the accessibility of their personal information. Targeted personal information includes places of residence, work, relationships and contact information. Cases have been reported where employers victimize employees based on information collected from social sites. It will therefore be important to also outline how the various sites categorize personal information so that not all information is available to the public. This would a perfect insurance to the protection of personal data.

Another research point that would be of immense importance is the user policies that the various companies that run social networks apply. The user policies should be aimed at protecting the users and ensuring that they understand the various risks they are exposed to when they upload classified information.

Also an aspect of user policies that I will be interested in demystifying is the profiling and usage of user data. Certain user policies such as Facebook, state that the sites can use information collected from other social networking users to supplement one’s profile. An example is the “tagging” Facebook feature. Posts or pictures on which one is “tagged” are added onto ones profile. Most of these “tagged” posts are events. An intruder could therefore use these posts to track and note one’s activities and movements.

Another issue would be the reliability of the password protection feature. I once heard my friends say that they were able to open multiple Facebook accounts from their own accounts. What was surprising is that once they logged in to the accounts they were able to upload information and edit user data. I never substantiated the truth in their claims but it will be interesting to get the truth about the claims from further research.

Like any other product in the market, social sites would face obsolescence if they never insisted on research and development activities. Research and development activities enable the site respond well to customer requirements and as a result enable it maintain its market status. Research and development in social sites has led to the growth of new applications with each passing day. Most of these applications, for instance Flixter or Band profile, require a lot of personal information to execute. It would be important to know the security of the information collected under these apps.

It will be interesting to assess the greatest contributors to the end of privacy on social networking. This is because it has the ability to wind-sweep the value of networked communication. What is the contribution of young people, the Y generation, as they are touted as the greatest users of social networks? Do they share unnecessarily personal information? Are they also the greatest victims?

The research would also seek to answer the question, what are the risks involve when unauthorized persons access personal user data on social networks. Privacy advocates would be quick to point out that “shared information may jeopardize personal safety”. This could be true because once the information of an individual is accessible to everybody, especially criminals; the life of that person is endangered. With that information, they are able to trace her/his movement and get want they want from the person. Further, the online information that is accessed through social media can be used to attack someone, a process the U.S government refers as “social engineering attacks”. The impersonators are able to use the basic information like hobbies, location, friends and interest to violate the rights of the person or impersonate him.

Who are the consumers of illegally mined data from social networks? One would be quick to point an accusing figure at research and marketing companies. This is because the performance of many industries relies mainly on these two departments due to their ability to determine sales levels. Only those organizations that have managed to understand the needs and wants of their customers are performing well in the market place. So do the marketers do illegal data mining on social networks? Information shared on social media through the internet, online social networks, smartphones and location-tracking could be used to strategize sales and marketing activities.

It is a fact that the number of info-thieves will keep on increasing, what bearing do they however have in people’s privacy on social networks? The situation could be explained by public blogs where people lift the information of other persons in social networks and paste them in the open internet. This could be to so as draw attention to their blogs hence increase revenues. The situation of information privacy has further confused the users of social networking because they are not sure with the setting of password and security cord. People are getting lost and unable to control their privacy in social networks. She further shows the seriousness of the situation by representing the number of people who gets confused as a result of privacy of the personal information.

What are therefore the mechanisms that people can apply online so as to protect their privacy? Most of teenagers are reported to have devised the mechanism of deleting all the messages and photos that had been posted in their walls before logging out of their social media accounts. This mechanism is meant to prevent the friends from altering and accessing their personal information. But are there better ways?

According to research that was conducted by the association of digital company, 72% of the employees are able to access the personal information of the organization. However, only 50% of them understand the need to keep that information confidential and secret. Therefore, from the research it is clear that the risk of personal information of most companies is due to lack of knowledge among the employee on the need to keep the information secrete. Therefore, the insecurity of information of most companies is due to their ignorance and negligence (Greenfield and Yan 83 -86).

The situation of social networking insecurity has trigged the minds of many people and a solution to the problem has been designed by professionals. Privacy tools have been devised to curb or eliminate the case of information disclose to strangers. One of the tools is sensitizing people about the importance of keeping their own personal information confidential and secrete.

As the companies try to secure their user data, they have provided the necessary tools and sensitized the users about the importance of privacy in the work place. Examples are that one can restrict contact persons and other major customization settings that include who can view what specific elements on one’s profile. On the other hand, they should limit the information that the employee access in the company as a way of keeping their information safe and within themselves. Further, the company and the employees should update their knowledge with the new technology to have the understanding and the ideas on the way to prevent disclosure of this information. Final, the management of the company should make the policies that govern the employees and other members of the company concerning sharing the confidential information that belong to the company.

Due to the severity of the concerns as highlighted above, social networks have continued to improve its security policies to ensure user data is rightly protected. For instance, Facebook has phased out aspects such as who can look up one’s timeline by name search, in one of the most visible measures. This is geared to protecting users from unwanted friend requests and similar unwanted messages. It has also limited post audiences to include only one’s friend or friends of friends. The proposed research will therefore seek to identify such measures against the privacy requirements of the users and determine whether the right balance is being met.

List of Potential Sources

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