Risks of Social Networking. Loss of privacy

Loss of Privacy

Social media users believe that convenience comes first. Users do not have any reservations about providing personal information as part of their profile.  When the user gives personally identifiable information (PII), such as address and date of birth, the intent is for the benefit of friends. Users believe that their friends already know the PII and they are sharing something that only provides clarity to their circle of friends.

The concept of privacy in general dictates that no one should be able to observe things about a person without that person’s knowledge. In social networks, privacy is greatly ignored unwittingly. Many people perceive that rejecting a request to be your friend based on one of your other friends’ recommendations might be considered rude.²⁰ It is important to recognize that friendships are dynamic. A typical scenario in Facebook could be that a friend posts “Five Things About Me” and encourages the recipient to do the same. In response to this suggestion from a friend, the posting by the recipient states, “I attended Valley High,” and, “My cat’s name is Myra.” It is likely that the user has chosen these two answers as his/her challenge response for an online bank account. This simple scenario points to the vulnerability of exposing personal information unwittingly.²¹

Social networks realize the importance of security and provide some tools to protect the information. However, the overwhelming goal is ease of use and rapid dissemination of information. It is clear from various statistics on the use of social networks that younger people use it extensively. The prior comment concerning the goals of social networks comes as a result of this observation as well as the fact that older adults also use social networks for ease of use and rapid communication capabilities.²⁶ These aspects pose an inherent security problem in social networks.

Social networks have revolutionized communication among an extended circle of friends. This technology has many benefits to offer society. Millions of people around the world are benefiting from the use of social networks. An analysis of this new technology shows that it has many positive aspects, but at the same time it has significant problems with respect to privacy of information and security. Social networks themselves are evolving and, as such, some of the settings that could offer the necessary security and privacy are still emerging. The ease of use aspect of the major social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, undermines their privacy and security features. The discussion established in this article also sheds light on some of the steps users can take to protect both privacy and security.

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