CB006639 Namal Gunapala Karunaratne

BEng (Hons) in Computer Networks & Security

Level I

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

Module Code & Title:

COCS-50673 Professional Skills for Networking

Prepared By:
Namal Gunapala Karunaratne (CB006639) IF16A1CNS

Date of Submission:
22nd May 2017

Word Count: 1655

Instructor:
Ms. Zackiya Ashraf

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The play of Privacy in Social Media; a

vanishing illusion?
Privacy is no longer a “social norm”, was stated by Facebook founder
Mark Zuckerberg. (Johnson, 2010)

Abstract

We post, upload and share our personal information freely on social media assuming that the
content is private to only those who we wish it to be seem. We enter identifying information
on sites without much thought or consideration and service providers freely entice their users
to do as well. This article looks at the ethicality of it and the privacy, now and in the future.

When I sign up for a blog site or gaming account, I never enter my personal information as a
Username, neither in the “Real Name” field either, opting to use a pseudonym instead. This
practice is followed by a majority of users, simply because of the concern for privacy.
Nobody wishes to reveal their identity if they do not have control of how that information is
used. However, signing up for a social media account, we willingly give our names, contact
information, country, city, etc., the lot. Moreover we post pictures, share our interests and
likes and information of ourselves without much thought to it.

Social media sites began as a method of communication. For young people to hang out
among peers, share ideas and likes with likeminded individuals. (Barnes, 2006) This has
since evolved into a social phenomenon where social norms, groupings, acceptance and even
mental wellbeing has undergone changes from the emergence of social media usage. At
present old and young utilise social media as a means of communication, sharing and
socialising. Younger generations are more open to social media than older generations,
naturally as their social norms move to include social media as a measure of acceptance and
bonding within groups. We as humans, naturally desire acceptance within our groups of
peers, thus pushing us towards the usage of social, maybe out of common interest or
willingness but more often than not, out of a desire of acceptance. Whichever was the trigger
factor that made one join social media, it is no longer used just for communication as people
post pictures, life events, check-ins and more personal information to these service providers
to get more in terms of service. It is commonly seen that a profile with more information,

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shares, posts, gathers the most popularity among their peers in the cyberspace community.
This entices more and more youngsters to engage and be more open in social media as
popularity is a driving motive behind most people, teenagers especially. Facebook and
Instagram for example, capitalises on this by allowing users to “Like” and “Heart” posts of
others, as a way of “quantifying popularity”, resulting in higher likes or hearts, implying that
more people like the content and/or the user who posted it. And as this number ties to the idea
of “popularity” or social standing, within a group. Interestingly enough, this also plays a part
in determining self-esteem of some users.

However, in the real world, even with these incentives, a person would not reveal personal
information to strangers walking by as it is in a social media site. So what makes a person
blatantly reveal information to a website that they would not reveal to their parents even?
What I believe is that it depends on the person’s perception of what privacy is in the real
world and in cyber space. In cyber space, social networking site, etc. the service provider
provides a disclosure/terms and conditions when a user signs up, where usually people simply
press agree and continue, giving the user the impression that even though there might be a
privacy concern, it is “alright” because they were informed. Another perception is that if
people believe they are in control of their privacy, there is less concern for it as it makes the
user believe they are in control, at least on some level. (Culnan & Armstrong, 1999) Among
the more teenage crowd there is a perception that their lives are private as long as their
parents do not go through their journals, where journals in modern times becoming ones
social media profile. (Barnes, 2006) There is also the misleading perception where people
who post content online, believe that it is solely still their property, whereas usually a
disclosure states that such content belongs to the service provider. The fault here is not with
the organisation, rather the user for ignorance. But it cannot be denied that these service
providers are also rather skilful in making use of their users’ ignorance to fine print. There is
also the ironic belief of users who believe that privacy is important, yet unknowingly have
revealed much about their personal information such as phone numbers and address on social
media. “On the Internet, the illusion of privacy creates boundary problems.For example, in a
television interview about Facebook, one of my students stated that she was concerned about
revealing personal information online. When the reporter asked to see her Facebook page, the
page contained her home address, phone numbers, and pictures of her young son. Without
being aware of the dangers of online social sites, she had revealed too much personal
information.” (Barnes, 2006) Is it quite moral and ethical for social media sites to incite, trick

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or to use the phrase, “pull the wool over their eyes” to make users give up personal
information and not warm or advise users about the fact? Would people actually sign up for
such services?

This is possibly because consumers understand that they have to provide identifying
information in order to take advantage of these services. (Albarran, 2013) This argument is
further helped in favour of these service providers by perception as explained earlier and
understanding of exchange benefit (where a user determines that information being revealed
is worth the services gained). But what users still lack to understand to a certain degree at
least is the fact that when content is posted online, they are public. Even if hidden from
friends list, this is still public to the service provider, and whatever marketing and ad agencies
they are dealing with. This may seem an intrusion of privacy but chances are you had already
agreed to it when signing up. While publicly revealed information can be used to identify an
individual through his/her social media profile and used to build a dossier on the individual as
implied by Albarran, any information given to the social media service provider can be used
to build and maintain a marketing model for each individual and tailor ads and products to
that individuals specific tastes and styles based on their social media profile. “Every bit of
information we disclose is another databite to be mined and measured, sorted and sold.”
(Claypoole, 2014) It could be argued that these service providers do inform their users of the
availability of the given data and information and as such the providers are not held
accountable if that information is misused. But

However, if we were to think of privacy in another perspective, where instead of attempting

to preserve privacy, we allow its paradigm change with social norms, there is a possibility
that it could be eroded further more to a point of non-existence. Especially as the age of
social media dawns and the younger generations that are affected by it, progressively see
privacy as an anachronism with the advancement of technology. That social media has made
privacy an illusion and its protection an oxymoron. (Debatin, 2011) Perhaps there is some
truth to this as more and more services that offer convenience and more personalised choices
come with the price of revealing information. In truth, this is the only way such a depth of
custom services to suit each individual is possible, as more information about the person is
required to make a service suit the person uniquely. Add to this the reality that more and
more of the younger generations are willing to accept that privacy is becoming less and less
in this technologically advancing world, due to ignorance, understanding, social norm
deviation or some other factor. Bringing the argument of whether gathering personal

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information about users is ethical, on one hand, it is a privacy concern about how far this
information will be shared to bring these services to the user. On the other hand it could be
said that for advancement of social networks, personalised services and better awareness,
such levels of data gathering and sharing is required and is the way forward in the road of
networked technology and a connected world. My view on this is that it is entirely up to the
individual who utilises these services. It is safe to assume that the service providers won’t
change their ways without a great shift in market norms. Till that occurs, I would say that it is
a user’s choice as to whether they deem it worth to reveal personal information and benefit
from these services or take another direction. Perhaps what Mark Zuckerberg had stated in
the beginning of this article does bear some truth, in the path to progress requires some level
of change in social understanding and acceptance of certain ideals. Or perhaps this is the path
that big corporations are charting for society to appease a profit oriented scheme. Indeed
whatever the case may be, privacy in social media is a topic that will be debated for years to
come.

References
Albarran, A. B., 2013. The Social Media Industries. 1st ed. New York: Routledge.

Barnes, S. B., 2006. A Privacy Paradox: Social Networking in the United States.

Claypoole, T. F., 2014. Privacy and Social Media. Business Law Today, January.

Culnan, M. J. & Armstrong, P. K., 1999. Information Privacy Concerns, Procedural Fairness,
and Impersonal Trust: An Empirical Investigation. Orgnizational Science, Ja.10(January-
February).

Debatin, B., 2011. Ethics, Privacy, and Self-Restraint in Social Networking. s.l.:Springer.

Johnson, B., 2010. The Guardian. [Online]

Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jan/11/facebook-privacy
[Accessed 21 05 2017].

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