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Social Media and Privacy

The world has become a global village. You can communicate to others all over the world

thanks to the improved technology forming a more networked society. There is now an increased

consumption and use of the social media spaces more than ever. People have used these social

media platforms for various reasons including social relations, work/conduct businesses. We

have seen some people make fortunes through social media platforms. The most common are

Facebook, twitter and Instagram. Recently, tiktok has also gained popularity thanks to the young

generation. All in all, social media has transformed lives. However, I believe it has had negative

and positive impacts as well. Is there a bigger picture to social media than we are made to

believe? Just how much information about us are we providing out there? Do we have privacy

issues when it comes to consumption of such spaces? This essay seeks to explore the issues

around social media and privacy.

According to Westin (1967), privacy is the privilege given to individuals institutions or

groups to decide for themselves when and how and how much their personal information is

accessed by others. He continues to assert that this can be achieved in different ways. Come to

think of it, social media is doing the same thing. We have the freedom to create and manage our

networking accounts and control how much we put out there. We have also been provided with

the privacy options so that we can determine who will or will not access the said information. We

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are also allowed to block and cut off communications if we feel that certain people and cyber

bullying us. How cool is that? (Jones, et al, 2005)

The concept of privacy is not new but with increased consumption comes with its

concerns. Privacy concerns have been raised. Then new technological advancement has allowed

easy collection, dissemination and storage of data in huge quantities (Spiekermann & Sarah, et

al, 2015). Such records are permanent and the users are often aware of anything that is

happening. Researchers have argued that such huge data collection may be harmful to the

privacy of a person. People may not have autonomy (even though they think they do) of their

information. It is just the thought that is being sold to social media users. This may be harmful

not just physically but psychologically. Solove (2007) create a mental picture of such issues

using the story of “dog poop girl. This is a story of a girl who was travelling using the train with

a dog and it pooped on the train. She refused to clean after her dog and the fellow passenger took

it to the internet and the information was spread without her permission. She ended up quitting

school and being thoroughly humiliated by her peers. Were it not for the ease of the use of social

media, the image could not have gone viral the way it did (Solove 2007).

I couldn’t help but think about the film that started streaming on Netflix on September

this year. The film “the social dilemma” is a perfect example of the harmful use of the social

media space. The impact the social media has had on our lives cannot be underestimated leave

alone privacy issues. I was surprised to learn that we do not see the same information (social

media users). The social media techs tailor the information using the data and the sites and

images you spend your time on. They control what you see and how much you see by predicting

your behavior. Apparently they can tell what you are most passionate about and what isn’t. This

film is actually encouraging users to delete their accounts and do away with it. Social media has

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become addictive and our young people are getting consumed. A perfect example is one of the

young characters in the film who could not stay for a week without using his phone. He was so

hooked to an extent that he seemed stressed without his phone. He couldn’t sleep and he started

getting anxious. In order to poke him and make him active again, the Facebook users used a

notification about a girl he liked in school and he immediately got back to his account. This is

too much control for people who claim to give us the autonomy and data privacy (Isobel, 2020).

According to Darasi (2017), there was privacy before the era of internet. This made

people closer to each other yet far from each other. However, this changed when unauthorized

person invaded the privacy of the British telecom (Darasi, 2017). Additionally, he insists that

social media is on the front line as far as privacy issues are concerned. This has become a

concern mainly because the government does not have regulations regarding the use of social

media platforms. These platforms have their own regulations. Their websites are made in a way

that they do not need to comply with any government regulations. They only need to adhere to

the privacy and data protection act (Darasi, 2017)

More so, from the Facebook website, (2004), their terms and conditions are clear and

anyone that agrees to them is held captive of this. They state that any information the users give

and post be it videos or photos that are Facebook’s property by right and Facebook can use that

information however they please. Such rights include creating calendars using the information

provided or sell it to make profits and the original user cannot claim profits at all. This may come

as a shock to many considering that most social media users do not bother to read and

comprehend the impact these terms and conditions they agree to may have on their lives (Jones,

et al, 2005)

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Moreover, the other privacy issue around social media use is hacking. I have personally

seen celebrities complain about their accounts being hacked. These hackers target accounts that

have the most followers. They then ask for ransom in order for the original owner to access their

own account. Additionally, they can use these accounts to fraud their followers before they

realize the account has been hacked. Another example is the invasion of privacy that happened in

2011 in Sony PlayStation network. How can such a well-known company and with tremendous

technological advancement be hacked? Sony is also known for its PlayStation and it has

successfully incorporated social media features like multiple players and chatting. This was not

the first time it was hacked and over 70 million users were compromised (Olaniran & Bolanle et

al, 2014).

This is a huge risk considering the hackers were able to access private information

including dates of birth, names, emails and credit card numbers. This cost the company a lot of

money because it was fined by the body responsible for personal data in the U.K. I can only

imagine how much harm the hackers could have done with such users’ information (Olaniran &

Bolanle et al, 2014).

However, even if one decided to stay off social media, critics have argued that our

privacy is still at risk. This is due to the fact the cloud technology has picked its pace as well. it

has become an important tool to companies and individuals. This platform uses our everyday

activities and stores data for computing purposes. Users of smartphones and apple phones have

their information stored in the iCloud system especially pictures as soon as they are captured.

This happens automatically and only the owner can turn it off. Failure to which, in case of a

hack, criminals can access private photos without their authorization. In order to avoid this,

social media platforms have adopted the “opt in” and “opt out” features that allow users to agree

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or not to such terms. This follows a scandal that happened when a Facebook user got annoyed

when their personal information was used to advertise without their knowledge or prior warning

(Bilogrevic, et al 2018).

With that being said, I believe that the speedy growth of social media and technology has

affected our privacy in a negative way. Most companies rely on the information we provide in

order to do their daily activities. They also use this information to expand and better their

services. This means that they will do anything possible to keep that information visible to them

despite doing so without our knowledge. However, we cannot ignore the good that has come

with social media (martin, 2016). It has affected our lives in a positive ways because we can now

do business, communicate and learn through social media. It has eliminated the distance and like

I said before, the world has become a global village.

In my opinion, I think this should hit at a personal level. One should ask themselves

whether one is willing to trade their personal information for an easier existence. If you are the

conservative type that considers their personal information too expensive to trade, then social

media is not for you. There is nothing like privacy when one decides to go online. If you think

that the advantages of social media outweigh the disadvantages, then the decision is up to you.

We cannot conclusively say that social media is good or bad, we can only weigh what works for

oneself and do what is good for you (Gross, et al 2005).

In conclusion, the rapid advancement in technology (and social media) has its positive

and negative impacts. Privacy issues surrounding use of social media are on the rise and lots of

concerns are being raised. This is because it has become easier to collect and share information.

Companies have taken advantage of this and they are using this to grow their businesses. Social

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media would be a better space if no one could access the information we provide without our

knowledge. It is also better because it has allowed us to communicate easily and made doing

business easier to conduct. The million dollar question that social media users should ask

themselves is “is my privacy worth trading for a better easier life”? I believe we can try to

provide as little information as possible so that we can continue to enjoy social media while

being safe. But is one feels that their privacy is not worth it, then, who are we to judge?

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Works cited

Olaniran, Bolanle A., et al. "A Gamer’s Nightmare: An Analysis of the Sony PlayStation Hacking

Crisis." Journal of Risk Analysis and Crisis Response 4.3 (2014): 151-159.

Darasi Mo. “Social media and our privacy. How much are we really paying for social media?”

(2017).

Isobel Hamilton. Facebook lays into Netflix documentary ‘the social dillema’ saying doc buries

the substance in sensationalism” (2020).

Jones, Harvey, and José Hiram Soltren. "Facebook: Threats to privacy." Project MAC: MIT

Project on Mathematics and Computing 1.01 (2005): 2005.

Gross, Ralph, and Alessandro Acquisti. "Information revelation and privacy in online social

networks." Proceedings of the 2005 ACM workshop on Privacy in the electronic society. 2005.

Spiekermann, Sarah, et al. "The challenges of personal data markets and privacy." Electronic

markets 25.2 (2015): 161-167.

Martin, Kirsten. "Understanding privacy online: Development of a social contract approach to

privacy." Journal of business ethics 137.3 (2016): 551-569.

Bilogrevic, Igor. "Privacy in Geospatial Applications and Location-Based Social

Networks." Handbook of Mobile Data Privacy. Springer, Cham, 2018. 195-228.

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Westin, Alan F. "Social and political dimensions of privacy." Journal of social issues 59.2

(2003): 431-453.

Solove, Daniel J. The future of reputation: Gossip, rumor, and privacy on the Internet. Yale

University Press, 2007.

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