Private Life on Social Networking Sites Essay

Social networking sites rump be defined as an online platform where slew create their own profiles, deal out them with the public, and communicate with other engagementrs on the Internet. The increasing democraticity of these sites affects our lives in m either aspects and the some important one is the secrecy issue. It can easily be detect that tender networking sites argon a real threat for the users person-to-person privacy.First of all, in that location be some threats arising from gage picture on brotherly networking sites. Generally, users give a lot of personal instruction to become a member of these sites and it is easy to access this learning for hackers and identity thieves. For example identity thieves who could gain very one-on-one information much(prenominal) as birth name and date, addresses, phone numbers and relationship location on social networking sites can verify themselves as being the profile owner. Therefore, they can access the users credi t card number and steal their bills easily. Moreover, identity thieves cause not only loss of specie however also loss of personal respect and close name.They can use the information to communicate with users other friends in order to obtain their information too. Rebecca Sweeny (2011) summarizes that users lack of awargonness of sharing information helps hackers and identity thieves to steal their money and damage good names. (as cited in Acquisti& Gross, 2006) The second threat arising from security vulnerabilities is marketing companies accessibility to users information without permission. For instance, spamming the users with unsolicited advertising contents can be annoying in most cases. Furtherto a greater extent, the companies sometimes obtain personal information and spread them with other companies and individuals in order to make advertisements more effective.Secondly, people share very private information on social networking sites, as Nico Reiher(2009) mentions, If the receiver of the information is not trustworthy, the user does not learn a chance to track or remove this information covering fire into trustworthy hands. causes some serious troubles. Firstly, people tend to announce where they are at that moment and what they are doing, therefore, they share real-time location ground information on social networking sites. To illustrate, people who share their locations and especially circulate others that they are not at home on social networking sites such(prenominal) as Foursquare, provide an opportunity to thieves to rob their houses. In addition, Facebook which is the most popular and preferred social networking sites, also enables people to share that much private information with the check-in application.Secondly, sharing awkward and embarrassing information or political sees on social networking sites lead to trouble in peoples social and professional lives. For example, some companies prefer to look to social networking site s in order to get information rough prospective employees. correspond to SNAPR project team, Even future employers,, may be able to view your posted information and draw specific conclusion about you as an individual, which could have the negative effects. Moreover, disgraceful posts on users profile which can be seen also by instructors or bosses will cause loss of account in educational or business lives.Those who are not in favor of this opinion seem to believe that social networking sites are untroubled and information is inaccessible for the public. They think that there are some restrictive privacy settings which allow users to specify who can see their information and profiles. Moreover, there are firewalls which help to prevent users information from hackers and identity thieves. Although it may be true to a certain extent, this claim is not strong enough, because these settings are not default without users knowledge. Generally, users are not fully informed about priva cy issues and share all information without any restriction.In addition, they are unaware of how much information they share to the public. There is not any explanation about the amount of the disseminative information. To sum up, the users unawareness of the privacy settings on social networking sites and their insensibility on this issue cause a lot of troubles. In addition, digital informations easy accessibility and fast spreading also pose a danger for users privacy. In order to prevent people from these threats, improving the privacy settings and informing them altogether should be the major precautions.References Reiher, N.(2009). Privacy on social networking sites and its impact on computer-mediated communication. Retrieved April 9,2012, fromhttp//www.grin.com/en/e-book/154916/privacy- on-social-network-sites-and-its-impact-on-computer-mediated-communication SNAPR Methodology project team. Dear social networking user ar you at risk? Retrieved April 9,2012, from socialrisk. weebly.com/index.htmlSweeny,R.(2011). Social networking sites More harm than good? Retrieved April 9,2012, from http//networkconference.netstudies.org/2011/04/social-networking-sites-more-harm-than- good/