With the recent surge of social networking websites in today's media, one must wonder how this affects our privacy. Recent controversies surrounding new privacy policies issued by Facebook, YouTube, & even Google bring to our attention the vulnerability that we expose ourselves to when we post up personal information on the web. In some ways, you can't undo what you post on the web because there is always someway to track it back. Phone numbers, credit card purchases, websites you visited; all those are stored somewhere in cyberspace for a technologically savvy individual to find. With the prominence of social networking sites, we are setting ourselves up for a loss of privacy. By the time we realize this, our information has already been leaked and it's too late to undo it. Sure, we can change our settings but someone out there has this information. My project will examine how social networking is an example of a purposeful loss of privacy. It will further examine the privacy policies that are put in place on popular social media sites and how they don't really protect our privacy. Once again, I stress the point that any information you give out on social media sites is fair game. There's always some way to find this information regardless if you have it "hidden." One must wonder if privacy even exists in the digital age...
This article quickly summarizes the danger the new social media outlets present us with...http://www.villagevoice.com/2012-02-15/news/the-facebook-killers/
Hi Carmen,
ReplyDeleteI always think about the fact that with rise of the internet and social media, we no longer have privacy. I think that too many people are not aware of it, because they put their addresses and phone numbers on facebook, which is very irresponsible for my opinion.
Also, we cannot really know how much we trust the social media companies and what they do with all of our information.
Good luck!
Roee Carmel
The reason there seems to be a loss of privacy is because many argue that privacy is "overrated". Of course there are measures you can take to be more private, and secure, but ultimately, is there really such a thing? One should just stay under the assumption that there is no such thing as 'delete', and that you are being watched (lol). If there's something you don't want out there, just don't introduce it to the environment, though that is difficult to do in today world. I would only assume that it would get overwhelming to question one's every move.
ReplyDeleteWith everything we get, there is a tradeoff. No such thing as free lunch.
I agree that social networking does in fact elevate privacy issues to a whole new level. In the end, I still believe that the users privacy is still in their hands. With the introduction of new technologies within social media, it has become easier and easier to reveal more personal information about themselves but it still their decisions whether they should post it to the public or not.
ReplyDeleteHey Carmen,
ReplyDeleteI think this issue is something that is always in the back of everyone's minds when sharing content on social networks, but we kind of tuck it away and pretend it's never going to be a problem. A great example of when it DID become a problem was when the Sony PlayStation Network was hacked last year. Millions of account holders had their information stolen, including credit card numbers. I was a part of this, but luckily the credit card I had registered with my account had expired! The whole fiasco cost Sony millions of dollars in offering reparations to the affected account holders.
I like the fact you mentioned that even we change the setting, the information is out already. People should think of these things before they put their personal information on internet.
ReplyDelete