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Connected anytime anywhere. This is probably one of the best things that the social media can provide 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 through March of 2016. 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 addition, many users use Facebook to read daily news, inspirational memes, live communications such as video streaming, free phone calls, and messaging. In other words, many people’s lives become an open book with the advent of social media networking sites. Unfortunately, a sad result of one’s life becoming an open book for prying eyes is identity theft. 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 has access to the pieces of information posted online. As a result, hackers have more access to sensitive information, such as passwords, phone numbers, addresses, pictures, and other private information that they can use to commit fraud, burglary, robbery, and other crimes.
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 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 post 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 has access to pieces of information posted online, whether or not privacy settings are kept to its maximum security. It is true that social media settings can be set so that the information is shown 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 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 re-posting the photo as “uncool” (Moore). In other words, privacy settings are not enough to protect one’s 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 a 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). Thus, data mining means that private user information can be gathered without user consent. 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 different types of personal information. At the same time, many people tend to share information with “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.
Smith, Aaron. “Half of Online Americans Don’t Know What a Privacy Policy is.” Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center, 4 December 2014.
