Privacy in Social Media

Feb 5

Privacy In Social Media: Not So Confined

Social Send email media is such a large part of our lives today, many people find themselves posting, tweeting and sharing on a daily basis. In this day and age, social media is used in an abundance of ways. Whether it’s sharing pictures, keeping up with friends or just as a platform to vent, social media is an integral part of our society. Just like any other societal component, we want to make sure it is protected and that we can control our own usage. Unfortunately this is largely not the case. What really happens when you click send? When your information is deleted or your account is deactivated, where does your information go? That’s right, you guessed it! It stays right there on the good old World Wide Web. The internet is such an amazing system and does a lot of good, but there are also some bad things that we should be leery of when using the internet mainly social media.

Control Your Experience

Privacy is a big concern to many users and most of us want to know what happens to our information once it is on the web. The answer is it stays there for an indeterminate amount of time. Once your information is put on the web there is no telling where it goes and who has access to it. If you delete something you post on social media, it is just deleted from your page but it still very much exists in the context of the web. If something is posted online for just seconds, there is no way to know how many people have seen it, copied it, or saved it for themselves. They don’t call it the informational superhighway for nothing. Any information put out on the web is available for everyone with internet access to see. When you use the internet or social media there is never any real privacy, but if you’re worried about the safety of the things you put online here are a few tips on how to be a smart social media user.

5 Tips on Social Media Usage

Check and Pay Atention to Your Privacy Settings. Privacy settings are put on social media websites for a reason. Make sure you understand your sites privacy settings and exactly what information is being shown on your profile. Know who can see your profile and what information you want to share with everyone and what information you want to be limited to friends and followers.
Be Mindful of What You Post! Just because your profile is private, protected or limited to just your friends, doesn’t mean it cannot be shared on social media. Pictures and text can be copied, screen shot or pilfered in a number of high-tech ways. So if there is something that you don’t want everyone to see, it’s probably smart not to post it on social media all together.
Only Associate With Reputable Characters. On social media sites there are millions of users. Some people are scamming, others are legitimite users. Make sure you know the difference. Only befriend or follow people and businesses on social media that you are familiar with. This will reduce the chance that your information will be spread and end up in the wrong hands.
Limit PI. Meaning limit the personal information that you share on social media. Try not to post your location on social media and never ever share information such as your birth date, SSN or address.
If You Do Not Want Everyone To See It, Do Not Post It. Even when you know your privacy settings and what information is being shared on your social media profile, you still need to be cognizant of the fact that once you hit send you are no longer in control of that content and it could end up anywhere.

Visualization is Key

The chart below shows the increase in social media usage over the last 7 years by age group, this is proof that more people are using social media and through this use we need to understand how to safeguard private information.

Solution to Privacy Dilemma

Social media is a fun place to stay connected and chat with friends but stop putting all your business out there for the world to see. Think of social media as a platform for connectivity, not a place to store your private information. Think of it in terms speaking, if you’re not comfortable with a random person on the street hearing what you have to say, don’t speak it. The same is true for social media. If you’re not comfortable with a random person seeing what you post, don’t post it.

(All accolades and credit for this tremendous blog post are for Eniss Garnett who is the author and content creator.)

Topics: social media

Ibrahim Fares

Great Article, I agree when you do not need everyone to see it then do not post it. Our Text book Chapter 10 is talking about the privacy and ethical of social media, “70% of United States HR/Recruiters have rejected a candidate based, solely upon their information found online.” * “The social media policy tips are 1) introduce the purpose of social media, 2) be responsible for what you write, 3) be authentic, 4) consider your audience, 5) exercise good judgment, 6) understand the concept of community, 7) respect copyright and fair use, 8) remember to protect confidentiality and proprietary information, 9) bring value, and 10) productivity matters. “ * “Once data is published online, it is effectively there forever and, depending on the privacy policy of the organization holding the data, may ultimately be seen by anyone on the internet.” * *Lim, Jeen-Su; Heinrichs, John (2011-05-30). Handbook of Social Media Marketing: Five Principles of Online and Social Network Interactivity (Kindle Locations 4162-4164). . Kindle Edition. Ordering Pizza in the future is a good example of data mining and breaching privacy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNJl9EEcsoE This video was posted six years ago and it is quite interesting how it dovetails with all the privacy discourse that is happening these days especially all data mining that could generate from social media

Feb 6, 2014 9:31:00 PM

Kenneth Smith

So much of our life is shared voluntarily today not just on the internet through social media but also through credit cards, store cards, online accounts and emails and then we get upset when we find out that it is not private or that the information was used in a manner that was not pre-approved. We want the benefits of giving our personal information so that we are recognized as a valued customer but we don’t want companies to use it for anything other than the intended purpose. They know that we are willing to concede our privacy for a little convenience and that is all that is important. Our children and our seniors are the most susceptible to some of the predatory practices by information gathering firms because our kids don’t care about protecting their privacy yet and there are only a moderate percentage of our seniors that understand fully how the technology around them is gathering and using it. The idea of data warehousing doesn’t translate just like the concept of not being able to see the internet. (Ted Talks - ANDREW BLUM: Discover the phsical side of the Internet) Please give me great customer service and offer me discounts but how dare you offer me a product that I need or make inferences about what I may need based on my shopping habits or websites visited and offer me something that I don’t even know I need yet because others that have bought the same product also bought these…. The truth is that they already have most of your personal information anyway and they just haven’t found a use for it yet. Big data has long since moved past descriptive or predictive analytics and has migrated to prescriptive where the goal is to convince you that you are going to need something in the future so while you are out, you may as well stop and pick it up right now. Industries depend on our lack of understanding of how big data is used so that they can gain valuable insight into our decision making so that they can help us make similar decisions. They cross reference fields and fields of information in the hopes of finding that one correlation that translates into more money. If you are interested in a demonstration of a lack of privacy, you can view this: Ted Talks - Alessandro Acquisti: Why Privacy Matters #WSUBiz7505

Feb 7, 2014 9:48:28 PM

Jenn Exel

I'd also like to add to this post a 6th tip. Even though information is on the internet forever if you delete it, you can try to manage when people can easily find. Don't forget to check what your "internet profile" looks like and Clean up your internet profile! Do a google search on your name. If you do not like the content that comes up, immediately start working on cleaning it up by logging into the sites that your name is appearing on and changing your user settings or canceling subscriptions. I am getting married this year and I was so surprised that everything I had created for our wedding online (website, registries, etc) were showing up in searches instead of remaining private for our guests. Also, my name was showing up in old fundraising sites that I was not affiliated with anymore These are just two examples of many that I had to fix by emailing the company and having my profile removed. Now, when I search my name the lack of information I see is much more pleasing to me.

Feb 8, 2014 11:54:18 AM

Bethany Dotson

Two things--one, I found out recently from a friend that works as a librarian at a law firm that there are many services out there that allow access to Facebook profiles, etc, that are, technically, fully privacy protected. Please know that everything that you post--even behind a password-protected privacy wall--is public to some degree. Also, for those interested in the topic, I highly recommend David Eggers' The Circle, which is a fictional novel, but has a lot to say on this subject.

Feb 8, 2014 2:46:34 PM