<Course>
Connected anytime anywhere. This is probably one of the best things that the social media can provide the society – a sense of connection. Nowadays, there is no doubt that the social media has been an integral part of people’s day to day lives, not just for the young people but also for the older ones. According to Facebook, one of the most popular social media sites that was founded in 2004, they have more than 1 billion active users on a daily basis as of March this year (“Stats”). However, users do not just use social media sites to connect with other people. Most of them also use these sites to share pieces of information about themselves, such as their photos, their emotions, their thoughts, their whereabouts, and the events in their lives. In other words, many people’s lives become an open book with the advent of social media networking sites. Even if these sites have privacy settings, there is still less privacy in social networking sites because not everyone is informed about privacy policies and there will always be someone else who have access to the pieces of information posted online.
First of all, not all social media users read and understand the privacy policies associated with the sites that they are using. For instance, in a poll conducted by Joseph Turow from the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania, it was revealed that more than 50 percent of internet users believe that the privacy policies ensure confidentiality of information (Smith). Unfortunately, what they believe in is not true. Smith adds that “a privacy policy is simply a legal document that discloses how customer data is managed and used.” This means that many people posts personal information online thinking that it will be kept confidential when in fact, confidentiality is not what the privacy policy is all about.
Second, there will always be someone else who have access to the pieces of information posted online, whether or not the privacy settings are kept to its maximum security. It is true that social media settings can be set so that the information is showed only to those who are allowed to see it. For instance, when a status is posted in Facebook, the user can determine who can see it (e.g., friends, friends of friends, or selected individuals). However, there are many possible ways for someone else to get access to a specific information. For instance, Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, reacted to a family photo that spread online back in 2012 (Moore). From Facebook, the family photo was shared in Twitter and became news when Randi stated that she posted it only for her friends on Facebook (Moore). Clearly, she felt that her privacy was invaded when she called that act of reposting the photo as “uncool” (Moore). In other words, privacy settings is not enough to protect ones privacy in social media.
Others may argue that whatever it is that the users share, they are open to the idea that others have access to it, so there is no issue in terms of personal privacy. However, this is not always the case. Based on Turow’s research, “people don’t truly understand how data mining works,” and even if they only give few pieces of information, these can be “linked with other sources to uncover information they would have never given out in the first place” (Smith). People’s false beliefs or lack of knowledge about privacy in social media will always be an item in terms of privacy issues.
Overall, there truly is less privacy in social media. Indeed, it is uplifting to share happy moments, encouraging thoughts, and funny ideas on social media. However, its usage requires the collection of several personal information. At the same time, many people tend to share information to “friends only” without knowing that it can easily be shared to others whom they do not even know. Therefore, disappointment over privacy in social media usage will be avoided if people will assume that anything they share online is open for the whole world to see.
Works Cited
Moore, Jack. “Mark Zuckerberg’s Sister Complains Of Facebook Privacy Breach.” Buzz Feed News. BuzzFeed, Inc. 26 December 2012.
“Stats.” Facebook Newsroom. Facebook, 2016. Web. 7 July 2016.
Smith, Aaron. “Half of Online Americans Don’t Know What a Privacy Policy is.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, 4 December 2014.
