StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
From the paper "Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies" it is clear that the surge in the use of SNSs, without a proper legal framework to protect user privacy, has made a large amount of private information on the internet open and vulnerable to misuse…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96% of users find it useful
Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies"

? Network societies and the implications for their privacies Introduction In the last decade the use of various social networking sites or SNSs, haverisen significantly. The SNSs are mainly used for socialising, where the users make new friends and reconnect with their old ones. There are also various kinds of online forums where likeminded people come together to share their views and opinions. Along with forming a network of ‘online’ social connections, SNSs also allow users to upload photos, videos and various forms of multimedia data, in order to communicate even better. The popularity of the SNSs is quite evident when we find in a 2009 report, which stated that globally almost 38% internet users are a member of one or many of the SNSs, and maintain regular profiles in the social networking sites (Wray, Social Networking Booming with Doubling of Online Profiles, 2009). Facebook, at present is the most popular SNS, with a rise of nearly 86.1% in user percentage (ibid). One major characteristic of these SNSs is that the users can upload their personal data on these sites on a daily basis. As per the recent study made by OfCom in 2010, “Social networking accounts for nearly a quarter of all time spent on the internet (23 per cent compared to 9 per cent in 2007).  This has been driven by the rapid growth of Facebook, which grew by 31 per cent. The average Facebook user spent 6 and 30 minutes on the site during May 2010,” (OfCom, Consumers spend almost half of their waking hours using media and communications, 2010. The 2008 OfCom report noted that an adult user, on an average, maintained his/her profile on around 1.6 SNSs, while enter their profiles at least once, every two days (OfCom, Social networking: a quantitative and qualitative research report into attitudes, behaviours & use, 2008). This expeditious rise in the usage of social networking sites in the past decade, has created new problems, where there are increased instances of user personal data being misused through identity theft and cyber stalking, for various commercial activities related to unauthorised searching for employees, or fishing for prospective clients (Brown, Edwards, and Marsden, Staking 2.0: privacy protection in a leading social networking site, nd). The internet and SNSs being open to all, the uploaded user information (even personal information) becomes accessible to a much wider user spectrum, besides the intended user group. Often user inexperience and a general unawareness coupled with inappropriate SNS website designing, unintentionally help in the misuse of private information by various commercial organisations. These misuses and the future potentiality of fraudulent activities using the obtained personal information have raised questions and concerns over the issue of creating a stronger security system that would assure SNS user privacy, and the inaccessibility of the uploaded information outside the targeted viewer group. As for example, a member of the medical SNS PatientsLikeMe, may opt to discuss his/her condition only with a specific group of people (like those sharing similar medical problems), thus making it imperative that the site gives the user his/her right to privacy. In this context, we will discuss network societies and the implications for their privacies, focussing on Facebook, as it is the leading SNS now. Discussion What is a SNS? Boyd and Ellison, defined SNSs as services provided that are internet-based and allow its users to: Create user profiles which can be kept partially public or completely public, within the provide domain of the site; Create a ‘friends’ list and a group where they can upload and share private information; Have an access to the friends’ profiles, and to these friends’ ‘friend list,’ where the user can view all the connections made by their friends and often by ‘other users’ (who are not direct friends, but may have common friends or common interests) within the domain of the same SNS (Boyd, and Ellison, 2007, 210-211). The ‘other users’ though not being on ‘friends’ list,’ can be connected at any point of time and through various SN platforms, like MySpace, Google+, Facebook, or Geni (a website for regrouping relatives). Often connections are forged through the external links coming in via other SNSs, like through ‘followers list’ seen in Twitter, or YouTube ‘subscriber list,’ even from the LinkedIn professional/business links Thus one can imagine the vastness of the extent and scope of the SNSs within the internet. Various instances have shown that recently organisations are showing a regular tendency to obtain illegally, personal information from the SNSs, for conducting consumer-behaviour-oriented advertisings. ‘Profiling via the predictive data mining’ is another form of new technology used extensively for illegally accessing personal information and automatically categorising internet users (Bygrave, 2001). These technologies are now being used by many of the EU institutions for gaining user data (user profiling) in the name of security, leading to protests from rights activists on the violation of citizens’ rights to privacy on the internet (Public Security, Privacy and Technology in Europe: Moving Forward. 2007). In the context of an increased threat to violation of user privacy, the focus is now on establishing stringent security rules for maintaining confidentiality within the various SNSs. However, a look at present legal scenario shows us the existing laws for tackling privacy violations are inadequate and fail to safeguard personal information of the user within the SNS environment (Dunleavy, Margetts, Bastow, & Tinkler, 2006). Facebook- a popular social networking site: Facebook, a popular social platform, is primarily used for making new friends, relocating the old ones, and playing different online games (West, Lewis and Currie, 2009). However, here the focus remains on further developing the real life connections, instead of forming new online/virtual relationships. The young users mainly use Facebook to interact with the people they actually know from their real life surroundings (Marwick, Diaz, and Palfrey, 2010). In the Facebook guidelines, there are claims that very young users would be restricted from using the site, “You will not use Facebook if you are under 13,” which theoretically disallows children under 13 years, from becoming a member (Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, 4 (5)-Registration and Account Security). However, this guideline is not effectively monitored, and it is very easy for any underage user (below 13 years of age), to mislead the age-verification process by presenting a false claim (Steeves, and Webster, 2008). Other protection processes like content advisories or credit card verification, were slightly more successful in disallowing the underage users from sharing too detailed personal information, but failed to stop them from taking entering the social networking site. Besides the problem of underage users, various researches show that 15-17 year olds, to break all age related restrictions, often end up sharing more personal data than actually required (Lwin, Stanaland, and Miyazaki, 2008). Even adult users, owing to lack of concern or even knowledge, often fail to modify the ‘default privacy settings,’ leading to greater chances of the data uploaded, being misused (Tuunaimen, Pitkanen, and Hovi, 2009). Suck lack of concern or knowledge amongst the users led to ‘data brokers’ (ChoicePoint) raking in millions from the personal information, which they collected from the “digital dossiers” of various SNSs users of Facebook, especially from people that put in too much personal information on the site (Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 2005). In the virtual world personal data is viewed more like a ‘commodity,’ a saleable property, for the various business organisations, data brokers, and credit-reporting firms, where they target young consumers, who account for multi-billion $ global businesses (Ciocchetti, 2007). In Facebook and other social networking sites, a user often has no choice but to keep free/open some of his/her personal data for general viewing, and it this form of data that becomes highly vulnerable, to be used by firms for their marketing strategies. To become a Facebook member one just has to give his email id, and officially just click and agree to the terms and conditions, as set by the company regarding the privacy policies on the domain (Hashemi, 2009). Thus, in this manner Facebook is able to collect large data, once the user enters the domain and starts using the site, as regards his/her personal information, which is ‘necessary’ to customise the offered site services. However, there are possibilities that such personal data may be ‘misused’ for marketing purposes or even sold to a third party at a hefty price. In 2007, three application platforms (Public Search, Beacon, and Social Ads) were added on Facebook that were used to help users play games, upload more data, share video clippings and pictures. These applications had access to user’s personal data (except the contact information), thus, allowing a large section of the users to become vulnerable to data misuse, even without them being aware. Conclusion From the above discussion, it is clear that the surge in the use of SNSs, without a proper legal framework to protect user privacy, has made a large amount of private information on the internet open and vulnerable to misuse, possible privacy violation, and even potential financial frauds. One possible route to lessen this danger is to educate the users on potential risks that may arise from uploading too much of personal data on the internet and SNSs, and the various liabilities that are generally associated with use of unauthorised data. The SNSs also must take care to monitor the nature of information uploaded, breaches in the user privacy, and stop any other kind of misuse of user personal information for commercial activities. The government must also frame stringent measures to tackle the business firms that make use of modern technologies to illegally access user personal data for their personal gains. References Bloomberg BusinessWeek, 2005. They are watching you. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_04/b3917056_mz005.htm [Accessed 30th November 2011] Boyd, D., and Ellison, N., 2007. Social network sites: De?nition, history, and scholarship. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 13(1):210–230. Brown, I., Edwards, L., and Marsden, C., nd. Staking 2.0: privacy protection in a leading social networking site. Retrieved from, http://www.law.ed.ac.uk/ahrc/gikii/docs2/edwards.pdf [Accessed on 1st December 2011] Bygrave, L., 2001. Minding the machine: Article 15 of the EC Data Protection Directive and Automated Profiling. Computer Law & Security Report, No. 17, 17-24. Ciocchetti, C., 2007. E-Commerce and Information Privacy: Privacy Policies as Personal Information Protectors, American Business Law Journal 44(1), 55-126. Dunleavy, P., Margetts, H., Bastow, S., & Tinkler, J., 2006. Digital Era Governance: IT Corporations, the State, and e-Government. Oxford: OUP. Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, 4 (5)-Registration and Account Security, retrieved from, http://www.facebook.com/#!/terms.php?ref=pf [accessed 30th November 2011] Lwin, M., Stanaland, A., and Miyazaki, A., 2008. Protecting children’s privacy online: How parental mediation strategies affect website safeguard effectiveness. Journal of Retailing 84(2), 205-217. Hashemi Y. 2009. Facebook’s privacy policy and its third-party partnerships: lucrativity and liability, Boston University Journal of Science and Technology Law 15, 140-61. Marwick, A., Diaz, D., and Palfrey, J., 2010. Youth, Privacy and Reputation, Research Publication 2010-5. The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University. Retrieved from, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1588163 OfCom., August 2010. Consumers spend almost half of their waking hours using media and communications. Retrieved from, http://media.ofcom.org.uk/2010/08/19/consumers-spend-almost-half-of-their-waking-hours-using-media-and-communications/ [Accessed on 30th November 2011] OfCom, 2008. Social networking: a quantitative and qualitative research report into attitudes, behaviors & use. Retrieved from http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/binaries/research/media-literacy/report1.pdf [Accessed on 29th November 2011] Public Security, Privacy and Technology in Europe: Moving Forward. 2007. Concept paper. Retrieved from http://www.statewatch.org/news/2008/jul/eu-futures-dec-sec-privacy-2007.pdf. [Accessed 30th November 2011] Steeves, V., and Webster, C., 2008. Closing the barn door: the effect of Parental supervision on Canadian children’s online privacy, Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, 28(1), 4-19. Tuunaimen, V., Pitkanen, O., and Hovi, M., 2009. Users’ Awareness of Privacy on Online Social Networking sites—Case Facebook, 22nd Bled eConference eEnablement: Facilitating an Open, Effective and Representative e-society, retrieved from, http://ecom.fov.uni-mb.si/proceedings.nsf/0/9b675b5e811394f0c125760000390664/$FILE/1_Tuunainen.pdf [accessed 30th November 2011] West, A., Lewis, J., and Currie, P., 2009. Students’ Facebook ‘friends’: public and private spheres, Journal of Youth Studies, 12(6), 615-627. Wray, R., 2009. Social Networking Booming with Doubling of Online Profiles. The Guardian. Retrieved from, http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/oct/16/social-netwrkign-facebook-internet [Accessed on 30th November 2011] Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Network Societies and the Implications for their Privacies Essay”, n.d.)
Network Societies and the Implications for their Privacies Essay. Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/journalism-communication/1437876-what-is-the-ychnetwork-societyyie-and-what
(Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies Essay)
Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies Essay. https://studentshare.org/journalism-communication/1437876-what-is-the-ychnetwork-societyyie-and-what.
“Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/journalism-communication/1437876-what-is-the-ychnetwork-societyyie-and-what.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Network Societies and the Implications for Their Privacies

Social Media Networks: Challenges and Opportunities to Shape Public Opinion

The study seeks an answer to the question: How does social media networking influence peoples' actions, particularly political activism, and how may the challenges of managing or dealing with the impact of social media network be effectively addressed?...
96 Pages (24000 words) Thesis

Volunteer Turnover of a Sporting Club

The researcher states that being the CEO of a large sporting club, one is well-aware of the very fact that there is a long list of various indoor and outdoor sports people take interest into them in order to keep them happy, fit, vigorous and busy.... hellip; This research tells that sports and games serve as a dominant feature of every society of the world....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The impact of electricity deregulation on customers and employees in Qatar

The impact of electricity deregulation on customers and employees in Qatar Abstract The following paper researches the culture sets of KAHRAMAA such that it endeavours to outline the effects of deregulation on the organisation in terms of both the employees and consumers.... hellip; The paper incorporates both secondary and primary research study of the issues relating to the issue of deregulation being set in as in how it tends to affect the internal and external operations of the concern....
80 Pages (20000 words) Dissertation

Social Networking Sites

Social networking sites are a place where individuals can state their opinions without reservation.... This opinion varies from individuals who feel that a candidate-elect would make the best president to those who feel that their government is oppressive, or even that congressmen feel that passing certain bills into law would be beneficial to his constituents....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

The 'colored revolutions' of Eastern Europe and their success factors

The 'colored revolutions' of Eastern Europe during the 2000s were fruitful due to a mishmash of international and local influences.... One doesn't need to go too far back in history to connect the dots to find out why and how the colored revolution was such a success.... hellip; Introduction ... he 'colored revolutions' of Eastern Europe during the 2000s were fruitful due to a mishmash of international and local influences....
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

To what extent is marketing a hindrance or help to democracy in the 21st century

he terms, mass-market, consumer culture, commodification, among others, characterize the 21st century societies.... Ideally, it is democracy, or the political system in general, that affects the dynamics of marketing since it is a tool that must be tailored according to the specific political environment it operates in....
13 Pages (3250 words) Essay

Social Networking Sites: Revolutionized Politics

An author of the essay "Social Networking Sites: Revolutionized Politics" claims that social networking sites have been criticized as being ineffective in conducting political change as political activists form or join like-minded groups.... They do not foster any action.... nbsp;… Social networking sites are a place where individuals can state their opinions without reservation....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Urban Native Communities

Their realities consist of getting gainfully employed in the urban centres while also creating ties with different societies amid their many challenges.... he complex nature through which systemic management of the urban native societies issues is established in social variances across the urban centres expresses the cohesiveness that appears to be controlling the nature of urban integration for the Aborigines which ensures that both positives from the process are preserved while the negatives are identified and dealt with in a systematic way to ensure problems do not crop up in future due to the solutions applied to today's problems....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us