The focus of this research is to understand how the issue of privacy is
affecting friendship in the virtual world of social media. "We live in
a celebrity generation where people want to be more famous than cautious,"
said Prof. Richardson of the University of Toronto. The challenge of
privacy in social media is a recurring topic of debate in business, academic
and personal information safety. In some school of thought, the issue of
privacy in social media is not different from normal life challenges bordering
on privacy violations. However, it is important to analyse both worlds from the
implication; the impact of privacy issues in social media is bigger and has a
wider reach than the non-virtual world.
Privacy challenges in social media can easily be understood from the
research by the Lancaster University in UK.[1] The research identified in three points the
bane of privacy concerns with using social media sites as follows:
- Does not allow the
user to choose whether the social media site could gather information on
the user.
- It also deprives
the user the opportunity to prevent information being shared with third
party.
- Users can not trace
details on which items were shared by the sites with third parties.
Three tips I would provide for social media users are:
ReplyDelete1. Only allow your closest friends to have access to your profiles
2. Turn on all privacy settings
3. Report any concerns you may have
It is important that people realize anyone can have access to your profile. It is important to never share pictures, statuses, and location settings that you wouldn’t want strangers to see.