Social Networking Sites and Privacy Issues Term Paper

Social networking sites have made it easy for individuals to share personal information and sharing of this information has become the norm. Many users of social networks are comfortable sharing their private life online and they have little regard for their privacy. The popularity of social networking sites has also been on the rise with more and more people creating accounts regardless of their age. Social networking sites have also made it easy for individuals to sign up and create accounts. While many people see social networking sites as offering online communication and interaction they fail to understand the complexities surrounding their privacy (Feng & Xie, 2014). This has resulted in a myriad of privacy issues like personal information being accessed by both friends and strangers. Sharing location data can be dangerous as it allows anyone who can see your posts to know where you are at any given time. Identity theft has also increased due to the lax privacy concerns of many users who will share all their personal information making it easy for their identity to be compromised or stolen.

All the social networking sites offer their users with numerous ways for them to control the information that is published and shared on their online profiles. However, many of the users are not aware of the risks that are posed by them sharing information with total strangers. The privacy settings offered are also unclear and not easily understood because the sites might use lots of jargon to explain how they use the information a user post. This makes it hard for most users to understand and they will continue to use the sites without understanding the risks. With the advent of user experience personalization, all social networking sites will sell some of the user information to advertising companies in order to receive targeted adverts on the social network.

Human and Technological Protective Measures

One of the most basic security safeguards is for social networking users to use the sites in the same way they handle offline conversations and communications. Sharing information is good, but we do not share private information with everyone. Social network users need to understand the implications that sharing information has on their lives and they should employ basic common sense. According to Zhang, Liang, Shen, and Lu (2014) before an individual post’s something online they should question if it is appropriate and if they would have shared it with everyone within their offline social circle. Users need to understand and know that when they post personal information online the information is no longer private and it might end up in the wrong hands.

To guard against potential identity theft social networking sites users, need to make use of strong passwords or passphrases. Personal security should be at the forefront of every user and there are various applications that can be…