Social Networking Sites and Privacy

Websites that allow users to post their personal profiles, upload pictures or videos, create lists of friends and view their profiles, is called a social networking site (SNS). If we all lived in an ideal world where nobody used information to harm anyone whether intentionally or not, then privacy issues wouldn’t even exist in these sites. But lo and behold they do.

In real life, information is passed from one person to another in a relatively slower pace compared to cyberspace. In fact, the web is built for the easy and speedy transfer of information. Almost everything in digital information can be copied, saved, or searched. When an individual’s personal information reaches the hands of people they were not intended for, it becomes harmful. Why does this occur in the first place? Users themselves can get other people’s information and use it for whatever purpose they have in mind. It can be a tool for harassing others, embarrassing them or even the opposite. The information can be spread to boost someone’s reputation.

When it comes to the responsibility of the SNS to protect the information they collect, there isn’t much reason to do so. The fact is, social networking sites are given financial incentives to gain access to information. For example, don’t you ever wonder why, before you could use an application there’s a dialog box that asks permission to access information like your list of friends or address book? There you go.

This occurs because while the use of SNS is free, there must be a way for them to generate income too. When they have access to information that is relevant to one’s identity, people are then categorized into different marketing spheres. It is sort of like a survey where demographics dictate what types of advertisements will most likely convince a user to a certain purchase. It sounds harmless but really the more times information switches hands, the more vulnerable we become. Try imagining a billion people who you haven’t met, know that you sold your car last week or that you arrived from Mexico yesterday.

Privacy policies are suppose to protect users, but nobody ever reads the fine print. If you’re a lawyer, there might be a chance but for the general public, no one bothers with it. This agreement form serves as a broad informed consent from the users, so what it truly means is that we give the SNS discretion to use information for a secondary purpose. They cannot use our names and details but they can create a marketing profile based on our preferences.

It’s not only the SNS who have access to your personal information or preferences. Another thing you might want to consider is that the Library of Congress archives tweets. There is no absolute privacy in the internet so if you would like to post something out there, consider that it is for public viewing. It won’t be erased for the next 40 years or so. These sites truly liberate us in the way we communicate in massive amounts of people at a time. We can reach out to anyone in the world with the touch of our fingertips, but it pays well to take caution.

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