Facebook and Privacy Issues - Essay Example

Facebook and Privacy Issues Introduction The 20th and 21st century, has witnessed technological advancement in the area of digital communications. This has allowed people across the globe to communicate easily and dissemination of information has improved significantly because of reliance on the internet. In addition, the advent of digital communication has further revolutionized social networking through a number of media platforms that include Facebook, LinkedIn, Google plus+ and Twitter. Through these mediums, interactions between people and across international borders, has been made easier. In essence, improvements in digital communications have made the world a global village where people across the world are linked through various networking mediums. In recent times, social networking through various media platforms has become popular in a society that continues to embrace technological advancement. In addition, social networking has improved how people conduct businesses, finding job placement and it is a means of spending leisure time form most people in terms of interacting with friends (Maich 5). However, while social networking has its advantages, it is also important to note that, there are drawbacks related to the use of social media platforms. This is because, social networking involves sharing of information between two or more people, and in some occasions, the information shared can reach wrong hands. This in essence, creates problems concerning privacy issues since users may want some of the information they share through the social media to remain private. In this regard, a leading social media site like Facebook is embattling problems related to privacy issues for its users. This paper examines privacy issues as one of the drawbacks for Facebook considered the leading social media platform globally. History of digital communication Prior to the advent of digital communications, sharing of information between persons or institutions in the society was rather cumbersome. This is because in order to interact with other people, this had to be done physically and involved moving from one point to another point. In addition, dissemination of information was slow and mails had to be delivered physically to their destinations. The only means of a quicker communication network in the 19th and early 20th century was through the telephone or telegram. However, these communication tools were the preserve of those with higher social standing. The rest of the society was left to rely on one-on-one communication or postal mails. While it was slow to interact with other people or disseminate information in this era, issues related to privacy were not a concern for people. This is because, information passed through face-to-face communication or through telephone, telegram and postal mails. It was almost impossible for personal information to get into wrong hands (Grad and Johnson 75). Further, the traditional way of communication ensured that information reached the right person because of being delivered physically. On the contrary, while it was safe to disseminate information through the traditional means that do not rely on technology, the slow pace of communication globally meant that, it was necessary to improve communications technology. This was made possible because of the advent of computers in the1950s. Since then, the computer has revolutionized the world of communication by introducing digital means of communication. As a result, communication and sharing of information has improved significantly across international borders. Because of the internet, digital communication has made the world to become a small village where people across international borders can communicate with one another or transfer large volumes of information instantly (Grad and Johnson 81). With further advancement in internet technology, the use of postal mails was gradually replaced with e-mails. This improved communication both at personal level and between institutions in the society. In essence, the introduction of internet use made communication easier and cheaper compared to the traditional means of communication that included for example, landline telephone, telegraph or postal mail that were expensive to manage. In the 21st century, internet technology has taken a stride by the introduction of social networking that allows people to interact and share information not only in the same locality, but across the world. This has been made possible by the establishment of social media platforms that includes, Facebook. These sites allows users to post their profiles and other personal information; important in tracing friends, looking for jobs or disseminating information related to a business or other events (Brandtzaeg, Petter and Skejten 1006). While appreciating the benefits that social media brings to the society, it is also critical to realize that, the privacy of personal information is important. However, there is the possibility that personal information users post on their Facebook accounts is falling in the wrong hands. Consequently, this information in wrong hands can be used for wrong purposes that the owner of the account is unaware. Among the negative impact of social networking is that the information that passes to the unintended users can become viral and to extent, damage the reputation of Facebook account holders. This in essence, contributes towards violation of user’s privacy. Further, while digital communication is vital in the society it is important to consider that crimes also occur in a virtual world. In the past few years, Facebook has been grappling with the issue of protecting the privacy of its account holders. Internet crimes are on the rise today, and this impact on the credibility of the social media sites in terms of protecting the privacy of their clients. Over the years, users of Facebook have raised a number of concerns concerning the protection of user’s information (Brandtzaeg, Petter and Skejten 1016). Privacy Issues Among the privacy, concerns that are affecting negatively on Facebook today include the introduction of Graph Search. This tool pose privacy concerns among users in the sense that it might violate user’s privacy by compromising their personal information without prior consent. A major drawback with the advent of social media is how to protect user’s personal information. This problem continues to impact negatively on the use of social media sites because people are afraid of their personal information being used for wrong or unintended purposes. This situation is retrogressive since people are reverting to the traditional ways of sharing information because of privacy concerns in using social media sites (Rubinstein and Good 1333). In addition, privacy concerns among users concerning Facebook include invading the privacy of users sharing photos, “likes” and personal information. The information hacked from other user’s account in most cases, is likely to be used in character assassination of account holders, groups or business institutions using Facebook as means of sharing information. On another note, because of privacy concerns, Facebook faces the threat of losing millions because now, users are deleting their accounts. Over the last year alone, Facebook has lost averagely 9million active users in the United States (Rubinstein and Good 1342). Conversely, since social media is a popular networking tool among the youth and young adults, there is often a pressure to open an account with Facebook in particular. This enables friends leaving apart to interact with each other. However, privacy concerns arise concerning the information that users make public. While most of the youth using internet are techno –savvy, there is a possibility to make mistakes by not using proper settings to protect personal information in their account, not meant for public consumption. This can result in cyberbullying where individuals post embarrassing or damaging information on other people’s Facebook wall. Consequently, friends are treated to details that a user would like to remain private (O' Bien and Torres 63). Third parties often invade the privacy of Facebook users who are careless with their account. This is because some users are unaware of how to guard their Facebook profiles. Other than cyberbullying, additional privacy issues include increased surveillance by the government and institutionalized discrimination. For Facebook account holders, it is dangerous relying only on the default settings in terms of protecting personal information. This results in a lack of controlling those who can view a user’s personal data. In addition, various institutions have a tendency of mining user’s Facebook profiles for their own gains. The users themselves also tend to be naïve in the sense that some users even post their earnings on Facebook, and this could attract theft (O' Bien and Torres 32). There is also the likelihood that social media companies are intercepting user’s messages. At the moment, Facebook is facing a legal tussle dealing with accusations of violating user’s privacy. This involves an effort to intercept user’s private messages without informing users. The Company is suspected of mining data for their own interest. This normally occurs in terms of scanning the private messages using URLs they contain. According to High-Tech Bridge, Facebook might be engaging in scanning the links that are shared for private messages. There is also the problem of third-party plug-ins used for counting “likes” that Facebook users share concerning private messages. The spreading of information across the web is another issue that Facebook users need to review. There are also recent reports concerning privacy bugs that compromise private chats on Facebook, as these chats appear visible to other Facebook friends (Witte 8). In addition, the introduction of “Open Graph” means that user’s online preferences may show up across most websites rather than Facebook.com only. On another note, most Facebook users are not well conversant with the privacy settings, and this creates doubts concerning the protection of private information. Further, Facebook is not clear concerning how apps interact with the data that users share online. Because of the “Open Graph”, there are many things that Facebook knows about their clients and use this information to interact with other friends or advertisers on Facebook (Witte 14). Facebook can pick a user’s exact location through geotagging. For example, the “Maps” feature on Facebook’s Timeline is used to gather user’s data regarding their location and this displays the information on the map. However, while there are users who are not comfortable sharing their location details, it is almost impossible to avoid this feature (Stieger, Burger, Bohn and Voracek 3). There are also sites that require web visitors to login through Facebook. An example in this respect is Spotify app. Consequently, when a user clicks play, this app can beam information and broadcast to other friends without noticing the user. The only way to stop the information from being broadcast to other friends involves turning off the music app. On the other hand, everything that Facebook users do online is often viewed and gathered by Facebook. For instance, Facebook often track all the clicks done by users for purposes of improving the user’s experience. This explains the reason why users complain about certain people appearing on their feed (Stieger et al 5). The existence of the “sponsored stories” feature enable companies to sponsor certain Facebook actions known as “stories”. This also acts as an advertisement for brands. However, the problem sets in where a user’s information is used to advertise a different brand all together. Where users “like” a brand automatically exposes their information to be used in brand ambassadorship. This means that an individual can support an event or a brand without knowing (Stieger et al 6). Further concerns concerning Facebook relate to news app that forms part of the new “Open Graph”. However, for a user to access articles from the news app, one has to allow the news app to access the personal information of the user. This seems to inconvenience users in the sense that, after reading an article, the app does not prompt users whether they are willing to share the article with other friends on Facebook. This is often done without informing the user (Lanier 64). While it is agreeable that social media plays an important part in improving communication, the emerging privacy concerns among users is something that social media platforms needs to resolve in order to improve the usability of the various social media platforms. In essence, digital commutations is a phenomenon that is still finding its way to most parts of the world, still embracing traditional means of communication. As such, they lack awareness concerning utilizing the privacy settings provided in the different social media platforms. Many people and including those knowledgeable in the use of communications technology have raised concerns concerning how a user can manage his or her privacy settings on Facebook and other social media platforms. These companies should make the process easier, which is important in improving user confidence in social networking (Lanier 68). Facebook and the Youth The emerging trend today, is that the youth no longer find Facebook interesting. This is evident in the decrease in the number of American youth using the media platform. The youth tends view Facebook as not being selective since even parents and teachers have Facebook accounts. This seems to compromise teenager’s carefree antics in social networking platforms, and can cause problems later with parents, teachers or even employers in the future. As such, the demographic trends evident among teenagers’ today shows a preference for media platforms that allows one-on-one interaction, and provides privacy (Delaney 91). How to improve privacy on social media platforms Since social networking is now part of the social life of most people and business entities, it is upon the user to take note on how to protect their privacy on social media platforms. These platforms have features that enable users to be discrete about their personal information. As such, it is upon users to learn how these features work in order to improve their privacy settings. Experts believe that protecting personal data on social media sites is a straight forward task. A media platform such as Facebook is often engaged in improving security settings. This is visible in Facebook’s latest version (Delaney 102). There are various security and settings related to privacy that users need to apply properly to safeguard their accounts from privacy violations. However, a major challenge in improving privacy involves the emergence of newer hacking app used by attackers to hack Facebook accounts, as a result of sharing WiFi. In essence, the development of VPN services for example, is meant to provide privacy in terms of enhancing security. VPN services are significant in thwarting app-based attacks and government surveillance. Other important factors that users need to consider include being cautious when clicking links and have knowledge of what is posted on their accounts. It is also important for users not to allow social media platforms to scan their e-mail address book. This is because the information retrieved can be used to send e-mail messages to other people found in the user’s contact list (Lachman 327). Conclusion While social media has improved communication between people both local and across international borders, there are certain shortcomings that need to be rectified. Privacy of individuals is of utmost important and most people in the society are uncomfortable with their personal details being open to the public. Since social media aims at improving communication and interaction among people across the globe, it is important for the various social media platforms to ensure the security of their clients is given priority. This is significant in protecting the user against harassment or other unforeseen threats associated various attacks on social media platforms. Works Cited Brandtzaeg, Petter Bae; Luders, Marika and Skjetne, Jan Håvard. Too Many Facebook 'Friends'? Content Sharing and Sociability Versus the Need for Privacy in Social Network Sites. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction 26.11 (2010): pp. 1006-1030. Print. Delaney, James. 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