New Media and Privacy Issues
From Baruchnewmedia
What is Privacy?
According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, privacy is 1) The quality or state of being apart from company or observation and 2) A state of seclusion, a freedom state from unauthorized intrusion. More importantly for individuals, it is one's right to keep personal information confidential. Upon reading this, the definition sounds clear and concise. Unfortunately though the traditional meaning of privacy is changing as we apply it to our use of new media. Today, privacy is viewed as a personal place that varies among each person. It is a unique and innate place, where only the person knows what constitutes their state of privacy.
New Media
It is essential to understand that the word "new" is something temporary. New media will never always be the same. As time goes on, that media will be "old" media and another new media will be on the rise. However, all kinds of new media should have the characteristics of the Five C's. The Five C's are communication, collaboration, community, creativity, and convergence. (Friedman) New media will constantly change but will always have the Five C's. New media are tools derived from the Internet that act as interactive forms of communication. These forms help people to collaborate and connect with one another. With Internet access, new media allows people to modify, create, and share content with others in a convenient and efficient way. People are able to connect to whomever they want wherever they want.
Examples of new media today are blogs, wikis, and social networking sites. These tools and technology have really opened the door of opportunity for the sharing, creating, and distribution of content. Since these tools have made it easy to share content, these tools have also made it easy to steal content. This is where the issues of privacy comes along. New media, through sources such as social networking sites, has made the invasion of privacy just about common in today's world. These tools make it extremely easy for a user to unknowingly share personal information that will harm them in the nearby future.
The capabilities of being able to see and predict one's personal life through new media has caught the attention of many people.
Understanding Privacy
It is essential to distinguish the different types of privacy to get a better understanding of what privacy really means for individuals. Two main different types of privacy are those that are physical and those that are informational and personal. According to Jeff H. Smith, physical privacy concerns intrusions of one's physical space and informational and personal privacy concerns exposed information about oneself. (Smith 188) On this page, we analyze the informational and personal type of privacy. In addition, we take a look at its large impact on new media. Privacy pertaining to Social Networking Sites is defined in this context as personal information that an individual thinks is important and not accessible by the general population. Personal information includes a person’s name, address, e-mail address, online user name, telephone number, social security number, and any other background information with which that person could be identified. Privacy also involves the individual’s right to control the distribution of personal information. Having the power to control the sharing of information and how it will be used is an individual’s right to privacy.
Privacy in Social Networking
How can you have privacy in a virtual world?
Terms of Use, Notices and Revisions of LinkedIn: "LinkedIn may update this privacy policy at any time, with or without advance notice. In the event there are significant changes in the way we treat your personally identifiable information, we will display a notice on the LinkedIn website or send you an email, as provided for above. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account. If you use the LinkedIn service after notice of changes have been sent to you or published on our site, you hereby provide your consent to the changed practices."
Terms of Use, Notices and Revisions of Facebook: "Your use of Facebook, and any disputes arising from it, is subject to this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Use and all of its dispute resolution provisions including arbitration, limitation on damages and choice of law. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use at any time. Non-material changes and clarifications will take effect immediately, and material changes will take effect within 30 days of their posting on this site. If we make changes, we will post them and will indicate at the top of this page the policy's new effective date. If we make material changes to this policy, we will notify you here, by email, or through notice on our home page. We encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current privacy policy. Unless stated otherwise, our current privacy policy applies to all information that we have about you and your account."
Privacy Rights of Ryze: "Notices to you may be made via posting on the RYZE website, email or regular mail. The Service may also provide notices of changes to the TOS or other matters by displaying notices or links to notices to you generally on the Service."
Users are responsible for maintaining the information that they provide on their user profiles. Upon reading the full term and agreement of each site, it is common to see that "privacy." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009.
People that post personal information on social networking sites can not expect for this information to stay private. When a user utilizes the privacy settings to prevent most users from viewing their personal information, photos or comments the user has an expectation that this information will remain private. What users should understand is anything posted online does not remain private, once posted it is public.
Timm, Dianne M., and Carolyn J. Duven. "Privacy and social networking sites." New Directions for Student Services 124 (2008): 89-101. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 Apr. 2010.
Can Information Revelation and Privacy Exist Together?
Main Article: Plaintiff's Postings on MySpace Negate Invasion of Privacy Claim
"People who live in glass houses should dress in the basement." -Jeff Neuburger
This quote is true in several facets of social networking sites. Many individuals have been exposing unnecessary information on their profile pages for others to see, such as their appalling photos, birth-dates, addresses, phone numbers, sibling names, and status updates (allowing others to easily track them down). At this present age, how else is privacy and confidentiality defined if personal information that many try to protect are disclosed to the public eye? How can individuals claim that their privacy is invaded if they do not even filter their own information on their profile pages? There are many questions that are spread throughout the web that address privacy issues in social networking sites. In fact, it is the individual's fault for publishing their own personal information for everyone to see, when there are privacy options in social networking sites as Myspace and Facebook to prevent others from seeing your feed or other information that you want to keep confidential. The use of social networking sites have opened a new era for many to get the opportunity to live in glass houses, where the general public can see through the barriers set to secure one's privacy. How can revealing information by one's own doing and privacy exist together? The answer is that they cannot! It is like living in a glasshouse, where everyone can see what a person is doing, while simultaneously trying to cover everything in order to protect and secure his or her privacy.
Sandler v. Calcagni
"Sandler v. Calcagni involves a dispute between high school students that escalated into petty criminal charges against one of the students, a retaliatory "tell-all" book written by that student's parents and printed by an online print-on-demand company, and a resulting lawsuit by the second student against the first student and her parents for defamation and privacy torts. The opinion is of interest for its ruling that the print-on-demand company is not liable for defamation as a publisher of the tell-all book, and that point, an important one for online print-on-demand companies, is addressed in the August edition of the New Media & Technology Law Newsletter. But another point in the opinion is interesting as well, that is, the court's ruling that the second student's invasion of privacy claim against the print-on-demand company, based on public disclosure of private facts, was negated by her own posting of the claimed private information on her publicly accessible MySpace page."
"The plaintiff's MySpace postings also figured in the court's ruling on the student's claim that statements in the book concerning her receipt of "professional help" were private facts. The court ruled that because the plaintiff had admitted on MySpace that she had sought psychological help in college, that fact not only was not private, but her admission of it on MySpace demonstrated that "she did not believe that the disclosure of this fact to be highly offensive.""
Based on the case of Sandler vs. Calgagni, another good question to tackle is: Do social networking sites really protect one's privacy or does an individual bring the consequences of allowing others to access their personal information upon themselves? Of course both are at fault, but this inquiry can be answered in a multitude of ways. Opinions vary and are plentiful, as they can be expressed very differently, and more than one answer may be correct.
--Ktorres 11:14, 10 Nov 2009 (CDT)
"Plaintiff's Postings on MySpace Negate Invasion of Privacy Claim". New Media & Technology Law Blog. 2008. Proskauer. 17 Aug 2008 [1]
Social networking and privacy are on a collision course. Users tend to want the best of both world where their privacy is protected while they're allowed to view as much information about other users as possible. For social networking to work people must be able to give up their information in exchange for services. In "Google's Orwell Moment" by Daniel Lyons, he discusses how our information has formed into a type of currency for social networks to use and where it's leading.
Lyons writes, "What's happening is that our privacy has become a kind of currency...Google charges nothing for Gmail; instead, it reads your e-mail and sends you advertisements based on keywords in your private messages. The real holy grail is you list of friends. With that information, marketers can start sending more targeted messages. If you like a certain movie, or album, or mountain bike, your friends will probably like those too. It's not pinpoint accuracy. But the data helps marketers 'narrowcast' their advertising." The very fact that social networks are able to obtain, store and sort users personal information allows them great insight into individuals interests and likes which provides a gateway to selective advertising companies have never been able to access before. "The genius of Google, Facebook and others is that they've created services that are so useful or entertaining that people will give up privacy in order to use them. Now the trick is to get people to give up more- in effect, to keep raising the price of the services," said Lyons.
"Google's Orwell Moment". Newsweek, 155(9), 20. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. 2010. 17 Feb 2010 [2]
by Jennifer Chan
New Media and Privacy Issues from Different Perspectives
Social networking among other technologies not only has a positive impact on society but a negative or dark side as well. One of the main issues is the invasion of user's privacy. According to “Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy,” Will Harris emphasizes the reason why social networks and sites such as MySpace, are worth the price they are in the market are because of data or information. More specifically it is our data and information from all of the social networking sites’ users.
Sociological Perspective
- Social networking definitely has a powerful influence over our lives. The Scientific American Mind study shows many benefits of social networking ranging from additional resilience to greater life satisfaction to reducing the risk of health problems. And according to “Flocking behavior lands on social networking sites” by Sharon Jayson, other studies in the past two years found that feeling part of a larger group helps in stroke recovery and memory retention and boosts overall well-being. Social networks influence our behavior and management of finances and the way we vote. However, social networks are not there to bring us friends but rather to make money by data mining and by selling virtual ads.
- The younger generation is exposed to the hype of social networks but is not warned respectfully. According to Robert Kraut, a professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University, those who used the Internet to meet people online more than to communicate with friends and family increased their depression and feelings of isolation. To the extreme, this influences suicidal attempts. For instance, an incident within the past year with Megan Meier greatly disturbed society. In the article “Jury to deliberate in MySpace suicide case” by Alex Dobuzinskis: Lori Drew posed as a teen boy on the MySpace social networking site to tease and humiliate 13 year old Megan Meier because she called her daughter ugly.
- As social networking and new media are enhancing, it is shifting our social values. The usage of online credit cards is raising as convenience is important in society. But at the same time, we face the loss of personal privacy which may include medical and financial details. According to Intelligence Factory observers, true anonymity is no longer possible. With today’s society moving in a faster pace than ever, features such as same day delivery and instant meals will only cause future generations to expect faster and better service.
Technological Perspective
- Usage of new media technologies is an enhancement towards society. However, it brings upon the issue of privacy as well. This is a critical issue as when such information can deal with personal information. Outsourcing is being utilized as we speak and seems to maintain a steady place in the market as companies search for prospects. Important factors in outsourcing that are considered are quality maintenance, and legal differences. And it may be difficult for the company to gain total control over the passage of corporate data. Within the next few years, the impact of social networking on organizations will be further influenced. As CEO John Chambers recently noted, Cisco's seen an exponential explosion in the use of collaborative technology in the past six months. Interesting information from “Don't be pooh-poohing social networking” by Johna Till Johnson shows blogging doubled in usage in four months; the number of wiki pages increased sevenfold in six months, and the number of video blogging files increased fourfold in the space of six months, while users grew eightfold. As social networks and new media have grown tremendously, they are expected to continue its growth in the near future. As it benefits the larger organizations, influence on individual performance and communication is a positive effect as well.
Educational Perspective
- In the past, Facebook made changes to its policy and features. For instance, in “Facebook privacy changes raise student ire; Some complain new features of social-networking site have stripped users of their privacy” by Alex Standard. As a majority of social networks consist of students, their opinions are taken seriously. With the addition of news feed and mini-feed, any changes the user made either to their personal information, photos or videos, etc. were sent by feeds or notification to all of their friends or connections. This caused students to feel deprived of privacy and without an option to opt-out of such feature was inefficient. The reason users prefer Facebook over MySpace is because of its privacy settings. For instance, to join a certain network on Facebook requires the user to have a registered email for that network. Social networks such as MySpace have set settings where the user 18 or older who wants to friend someone 16 and under would need to know the person’s full name and/or email address. But these changes are the effect of several arrests of people who used the site to prey on minors.
New Media such as Facebook have an positive impact on Education. Facebook’s networking feature allowed individuals of similar interests and/or goals to gather together and educate politicians, farmers, Facebook fans and many other type of people. It allowed certain Facebook users to be their communities’ advocates and representatives. Heather Wolpert-Gawron, a teacher and a new mom, wrote a blog post “Social Media in Education: The Power of Facebook” that presented us two examples of how Facebook has been used for an education purpose. The first example that Wolpert-Gawron gave that show how Facebook impacted education in a positive aspect is the example of “Buffelgrass shall perish.” The Buffelgrass Shall Perish fan page is created by a science Tucson teacher, Brian Kievit and his small class of eight graders. This fan page educated politicians, farmers and Facebook fans like Heather Wolpert-Gawron about the danger of Buffelgrass. The fan page started when Brian Kievit ask his eight grade class to pick a problem in their local community and solve it. The class picked Buffelgrass which is a “fast-growing, flame resistant menace which is cheaply imported by some states (listen up Texas!) as inexpensive erosion control and cattle feed…it devours the natural habitat, stealing water and sucking the nutrients from the ecosystem, and has a shelf life seemingly longer than a Twinkle.” [1] The students decided that they needed to get the words out to states’ politicians who allow the Buffelgrass to be exported into other states and farmers who are using it as inexpensive erosion control and cattle feed. So they create Facebook page dedicated to this threat and later on, the students uploaded a rap song onto YouTube. Soon after, the students updated the page constantly with new information to educate the nation about the danger of Buffelgrass. Brian Kievit integrated Facebook into his classroom setting as an education tool that improve the quality of classroom learning and even managed to spread education outside of the classroom to educate politicians and farmers about the danger of Buffelgrass. The second example that Heather Wolpert-Gawron presented to us of how Facebook was used to shape education in a positive aspect is titled “Teachers’ Letters to Obama.” The Teachers’ Letter to Obama Facebook campaign is started by Anthony Cody as a diary entry which later on grew into a movement. According to Heather Wolpert-Gawron, the twelve who were involved into the movement were “granted a conference call with Arne Duncan himself to discuss concerns and suggestions for Obama’s blueprint for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).” This second example show how Facebook allowed their users to be their own local communities’ advocates leaders and representatives. In this case, Facebook was used to shape and change education into something better by enlisted the helps, opinions and suggestions of individuals into the blueprint for revising the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Facebook gave their users the “power to change [their] small and greater worlds by using social networking to get our voices heard. The power of social networking can at times be unforeseen, but it is a tool for advocacy at every level in education.” (Wolpert-Gawron).
Moral Perspective
- People may refer to social networking as a gray area because it can confuse them. People need to use their own judgment and take personal responsibility to apply professional ethics in and out of the workplace. Social networking is all about how we use it. Within the past two months, Facebook initiated a ‘memorialize’ function for members who have died. By request, activation of this mode for the dead will remove any sensitive information and contact information on that account. And will only allow access to those that are friends before the tragedy. According to “Social networking for the dead” by Alan Wilson, people may turn to Facebook during tragic times. For instance, a friend of Wilson’s daughter died and hundreds of her friends turned to Facebook. As they shared their experiences and feelings toward the dead, they came together as a community united in grief. There are people who may use social networks in good terms, while there are those who have negative intentions and attempt to deprive others of their information.
Economic Perspective
- Today’s technology trends should be analyzed deeply. They are transforming many of our markets and businesses. New media and technologies now allow workers to work outside corporate boundaries. It gives companies and its employees more options in terms of convenience. Companies by outsourcing are able to reduce its costs and expenses. Through social networks they are able to work more efficiently. However, the threat of social media is the acknowledgment that communities can no longer control their marketing messages. More than half of US companies do not allow employees to visit social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter while at work.
- Social networks can help elevate the economy by influencing the job market by creating new opportunities, however, companies may still believe they are more intended for only personal use. Social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook and LinkedIn are popular sites that professionals use for recruitment purposes. It is a convenient way to find or let information out and through the million applicants; recruiters could call up the specific person.
□ Alexa Stanard. "Facebook privacy changes raise student ire :Some complain new features of social-networking site have stripped users of their privacy.. " Detroit News,ProQuest. Web.
□ Dobuzinskis, Alex. "Jury to deliberate in MySpace suicide case | Technology." Reuters.com. N.p., n.d. Web. [3]
□ Harris, Will. "Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy." bit-tech.net. N.p., n.d. Web. [4]
□ Jayson, Sharon. "'Flocking' behavior lands on social networking sites." USATODAY. N.p., n.d. Web. [5]
□ Wilson, Alan. "Social networking for the dead." guardian.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. [6]
Social Networking Do Care
Social Networking Sites provide the means for the processing of user data and provide all the 'basic' services related to user management (e.g. registration and deletion of accounts). Just because content is produced and posted by users, this does not allow these sites to escape their legal obligations to users.
Most social networking sites always try to secure your private information from others but recently, Facebook is having problems with phishers, which is one great example of a problem in our privacy. Another example includes spams.
Social networking sites understand the dangerous threats that are rising. Privacy concerns are increasing and related issues are getting worse. Due to this growing problem, social networking sites added settings to give users the option to have customize who can see what. According to Carlton Collins of Journal of Accountancy, Facebook is working hard to tighten security and distribute optimal protection to their users. (Collins) Their privacy settings options give flexibility for users and gives them better control then when social networking sites first came out. (Grimmelmann 1142)
Social Networking and Privacy
Social networking among other technologies of new media not only have a positive impact on society but a negative or dark side as well. Major issues associated with social networking are its potential privacy threats to its users. The Internet keeps a permanent record of what we say to each other. Therefore, users unknowingly experience privacy intruders overtime because they don’t realize the available future consequences at the initial time something is posted. After a post, message, or photo upload is deleted, there are still ways to get access to that content. According to surveys done by Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, students do not show a strong desire to protect themselves from privacy and behavior and teens are not aware of the capabilities of the negative aspects of the Internet. (Boyd)
According to “Why Web 2.0 will end your privacy,” Will Harris emphasizes the reason why social networks and sites such as MySpace are worth the price they are in the market are because of data or information. More specifically it is our data and information from all of the social networking sites’ users. Everything we have ever uploaded and details about us are with them as well. This type of information is useful for the market as companies would be interested in statistically, what we are interested in and target specific locations, age groups or networks. Sangita Tamang: In one hand we are benefited from the social networking sites as we are able to keep in touch with our family and friends. On the another hand we need to be very careful when we use this sites because we are risking our privacy. Almost all sites that offer free services, online networking or shopping, keep records of our activities and amalgamates it with data from online tracking sources and sell it to someone. Most likely they sell our information to the companies who need our information for advertisement of their products. There are no U.S. Federal statues that protects online privacy. There are no effective control over the use of personal information by online surveillance.
As social networking and new media are enhancing, it shifts our social values. The usage of online credit cards are raising as convenience is important in society. But the same time, we face the loss of personal privacy which may include medical and financial details. According to Intelligence Factory observers, true anonymity is no longer possible. With today’s society moving in a faster pace than ever, features such as same day delivery and instant meals will only cause future generations to expect faster and better service.
In the near future the market and society will overall continue to advance or become enhanced through social networking and technologies of new media. And as social networking websites attempt to protect users privacy in steps, securities will further enhance as social networking continues to become part of our daily lives.
Social Networking and Work
According to the Careerbuilder.com website, about twenty percent of employers of companies admitted to checking out candidate’s profiles on social networking before deciding to employ them. Another nine percent said that they planned to start reviewing potential candidate’s social networking pages in the future before making an employment decision. The research also showed that while twenty-four percent of employers had hired an employee based on their networking profile, thirty-three percent had also decided not to make a job offer after reviewing their social networking profile. [2] In another survey in 2009, they found that 63% of employers have rejected candidates based upon the information found within their profiles on the social networking site. [3] It seems like more and more companies are starting to look at potential employee’s profile in a social networking site before hiring. Many companies look on social networking sites prior to hiring employees to assure that those candidates won’t “embarrass” the company. The candidate’s social networking profile can also serve as an asset to them. A candidate’s profile can be used to show his depth of knowledge for his or her area of expertise. However, it can also show the opposite. On the other hand, because employers are checking profiles, “an employee could argue that he or she has a reasonable expectation of privacy in off-duty Internet conduct that doesn’t relate to employment concerns and that an employer’s invasion there would be considered serious by today’s norms. If the employee’s off-duty OSN (online social networking) conduct does not run afoul of the employer’s legitimate business interest, then any discipline/termination based on such use is most likely a violation of the employee’s constitutionally protected privacy right.” [3] Employers shouldn’t judge a person too much on what they see on a social networking site because their social and professional lives are different. Many would expect their rights to privacy in expressing personal freedoms and exercise their individualism. However Patricia S. Abril cautions that, in tort law, “those who have exposed themselves to the public eye cannot claim a reasonable expectation of privacy in their exposure.” [3]
Privacy and Identity Theft
Identity theft is a serious threat that may result from privacy issues. According to Dictionary.com, identity theft is the crime of setting up and using bank accounts and credit facilities fraudulently in another person's name without his or her knowledge. New media is providing new ways for people to invade privacy, steal your personal information, and to commit fraud. (Vangie) New media and social networking services have led people to spend more time and interaction online. As a result, people possess this "online" lifestyle where everything is shared over the internet. Sharing information over the internet can be a very bad idea. Studies by Carnegie Mellon University, show that there are capabilities to reconstruct social security numbers by using only information found in user’s profiles. Thieves can use your information to obtain a driver's license or other documentation that would display their photo but your name and information.
As businesses as well as consumers, are increasingly relying on the internet to promote, communicate, as well as conducting transactions, illegal activity such as identity theft is also on the rise. With this vital information found on social networking sites, the imposter is able to obtain merchandise and services such as applying for a checking account, credit card, or even cellular service in the name of the victim. Other than hindering the victim financially, the imposter can use this stolen identity to create a criminal record. The imposter may provide police or government officials with false identification and leaving them with outstanding warrants. Fraudulent activity conducted via the Internet involving identity theft is generally difficult to trace. As a result, it is also difficult to prosecute the thieves. It may costs individuals as well as businesses, millions of dollars each year. One of the most dangerous and biggest drawbacks of social networking sites is identity theft. In order to create a profile on one of these social networking sites, you have to input certain information about yourself. This includes vital information like your name, date of birth, location, and email address. For many thieves out there, this information may be all they need to steal your identity. However, many sites give you the option of deciding just how much information you want to reveal to the public. You may opt out of revealing information such as your email address, hometown, or your date of birth. Doing this decreases the chances of people trying to steal your identity. The downside of being able to opt out of revealing certain information is that if you reveal too little, no one will be able to find you. The problem with no one being able to find you is that it completely defeats the purpose of the social networking sites. The main purpose of these social networking sites is to help you be able to find and connect with friends. But if you share too much, you risk putting yourself in the position of becoming a victim of identity theft.
Privacy and Investigations
When people do not separate their personal life from their professional life, they do not realize they are still being able to get into trouble. People must realize that nothing on the internet that is posted is privacy free. Anything that is posted and deleted can still be trace back to any person because the logs and data are still there in the system. Because of social media postings have emerged; Facebook, MySpace and Twitter can help to pin down the whereabouts of suspects.
Social networking services are increasingly being used in legal and criminal investigations. Information posted on sites such as MySpace and Facebook has been used by police (forensic profiling), probation, and university officials to prosecute users of said sites. In some situations, content posted on MySpace has been used in court. [7]
Facebook is increasingly being used by school administrations and law enforcement agencies as a source of evidence against student users. The site, the number one online destination for college students, allows users to create profile pages with personal details. These pages can be viewed by other registered users from the same school which often include resident assistants and campus police who have signed-up for the service. [8]
In an article by Johnny Snyder, "MySpace.com – A Social Networking Site and Social Contract Theory", its shows examples of how social networking sites can get people in trouble through the use forensic profiling. Three police officers in Lexington, Kentucky, were recently suspended because their MySpace.com comments because derogatory remarks about gays and mentally disabled individuals. A teenager in Chicago was arrested for spray painting graffiti on a church because authorities were able to track his moniker via his MySpace.com account. In a college setting, a student senator was relieved of her duties due to a picture of underage alcohol consumption that appeared on her Facebook.com account. [9]
Privacy and Social Security
New Media such as Facebook can allow identity thieves to steal users’ social number. Facebook users revealed information such as birth date, hometown, current residence and current phone number can be used to estimate individuals’ social security number and expose them to identity thief. The first three digits of a social security number reveal where that number was created (specifically, the digits are determined by the ZIP code of the mailing address shown on the application for a social security number). The next two digits are group identifiers, which are assigned according to a peculiar but predictable temporal order. The last four digits are progressive serial numbers.[4] When Facebook’s users disclosed the information of their hometown, their first three digits of their social security numbers can be identified. Next will be the two digits after the first three digits, the two digits can be identified when individuals’ birth dates are known. Last but not least according to Gross, the last four digits are often used in unprotected logins and passwords can be retrieved through social engineering. Facebook place their users at risk for identity thefts due to their current privacy policy and the fact that everyone has access to individuals’ Facebook profile pages where it has all the information the users have disclosed about themselves.
How To Protect Your Privacy on Social Networking Sites
Securing your personal information on social networking sites isn’t only a matter of privacy. It’s also an important step in preventing identity theft. If you share personal information online, you make it easier for identity thieves to make off with your life story (and credit cards, and social security number, etc.) without a second thought. Victims of identity theft can suffer significant financial losses, and can spend years working to “clear their name.”
Users of social networking sites and online communities should be aware of the legal implications of publicly posted information and ways to protect their privacy online. Here are some suggested ways to protect your privacy on social networking sites:
• Use Social Networking Sites wisely. Understand which information you should and shouldn’t share and how you can actively set limits (privacy settings) on the information you share. Each social networking sites takes a slightly a different approach to sharing your information.
• Be aware that information posted on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, and other online networking places is public. Think twice before pressing “Publish” or “Share.” Avoid sharing personal information such as phone numbers and addresses online. Change passwords every thirty to sixty days, and don’t use passwords that are easy to guess (such as variations of loved one’s names).
• Be proactive in finding and using the controls these sites provide to protect your personal information and reduce your exposure to identity theft. According to McAfee, users should be weary of the links they click on facebook. It might look like a farmville invite, but it may contain malicious third party applications link.
According to the FBI and Myspace Myspace Safety a user should follow these rules: •Children are the most likely to post valuable information on the website without realizing that it is potentially placing them in danger. Young children may also not be as perceptive to a phony profile on a website as someone who is older. Keeping the computer in a shared area allows others to know that they are being watched and therefore helps keep them out of danger from saying inappropriate things to strangers.
•Screen the people who request you to be friends. Send messages to each other before accepting the friend request to find out who they are and why they want to be friends. These people may be online predators who are pretending to be someone who they are not.
•It is recommended that the user always have some sort of firewall or anti-spamming program installed. People are able to embed viruses into their links which puts the visitor at risk of becoming infected.
•It is advised to all members that they should display caution when choosing on whether or not to have contact with a social networking member rather than keeping the relationship strictly virtual.
•A user is also advised to never post their address, phone number, or actual name on their profile as it makes it easier for them to become a victim.
•Do not upload private photos onto social networking site. Terms of use on sites such as facebook state that all photos belong to them once uploaded to their site.
•Disable and do not use the features that allow tracking such as "Check In" on Facebook. Don't reveal your location for strangers to find you.
•Set your profile so that only your friends can view it and not the public.
New Media and Digital Piracy
With the international adoption of the internet by every country in the world, and the advancement in technology to the digital age, the conditions were set for a literal orgy of information sharing. There is nothing wrong with information sharing, as long as the information is free to give. The problem is that not all information is free, or legally able to be shared. Digital Piracy is the illegal act of copying software, videos, and music, along with any other form of digital media, by someone who does not hold the copy write, and who then sells the copy for a fraction of the original cost of the product. Although this sounds like something a skilled hacker might do in his basement, it is being done at all times, by many people, in many ways, and for many purposes. If you could get something that normally costs money for free, no further incentive is needed to spur the user into a downloading frenzy.
A commonly accepted approach to such activities, although completely wrong, is that if everyone is doing it, then it must be legal. However, the illegal copying of digital media is not legal in any sense. It might be easy to claim that such actions are moral or immoral by preaching one's own beliefs or ideas, but true moral/ethical theories are the only method through which we may learn if something is moral or immoral. There are four workable ethical theories; Kantianism, act utilitarianism, rule utilitarianism, and social contract theory.
A workable ethical theory must conform to the following criteria:
□ Involve moral decisions and rules □ Based on logical reasoning □ Derived from commonly held values and facts □ Culturally Neutral □ Treat all persons equally
The application of these four workable ethical theories to the case of digital piracy will give us rationally sound answer to the question of whether it is moral to pirate digital media or not. Lets take a look at the application of these four theories to this touchy issue.
Kantianism
Kantianism consists for two Categorical Imperatives. In order to be moral, the act must obey one or the other imperative. The first formulation of the categorical imperative is to "Act only from moral rules that you can at the same time universalize". The second formulation of the categorical imperative is to "Act so that you always treat both yourself and other people as ends in themselves, and never as means to an end". In the case of digital piracy, if we make a rule that all people, everywhere, can copy and sell digital media for cheaper than the copyright owner, than the actual meaning and digital piracy would no longer continue to mean the same thing. It would not be piracy at all but common practice. Because there is a violation in the meaning of the word, this is considered immoral. In regards to the second imperative, if we copy and sell the digital media, we are using it only as a means to get money and not as an end in itself. Because digital piracy violates both categorical imperatives, it is immoral.
Act Utilitarianism
Act utilitarianism is a point based system which is very easy to use in a moral analysis. When considering an action, you must consider the total amount of happiness points created through such an action, and compare that to the total amount of unhappiness points created. If there is more happiness points than unhappiness point, the act is moral, and the converse is also true. For digital piracy, the user copying the media is probably very happy that they are gaining the pirated media at no cost to themselves, besides the work time invested in the duplication or download. Lets say that this happiness totals 500 points. Now lets consider and count the unhappiness points. If the software producer looses out on the one customer, they might not be in such bad shape and thus it may at first appear that the act could be moral. The kicker is that you must consider future action in your analysis. Lets say the user copies the data and then shares it out on the internet for anyone to download for free. This would cause tremendous unhappiness to the company, as thy would soon go out of business. This unhappiness would out weight the happiness gained by the users. Therefore, in an analysis of digital piracy through the theory of act utilitarianism, the act is immoral.
Rule Utilitarianism
Rule Utilitarianism, much the same as Act Utilitarianism, is a point based analysis. Total happiness it measured against total unhappiness. However, the once change is that the act is universalized and then measured. This allows for a much easier analysis and counting of the points. If the total happiness is more than the act is moral, and visa versa. If everyone, everywhere was to pirate digital media, it would cause the music industry to go under, which would then cause us to be unhappy because we will no longer get the music we love. Therefore, under Rule Utilitarianism, it is immoral to pirate digital media.
Social Contract Theory
Social Contract Theory is a moral theory based on rationality. It states that "Morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another, that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well." If there are ten people whom all have an equal change of become a laundry man, than you would not collectively agree to impose a law on laundrymen stating they must pay twice the tax of everyone else. This is because you are rational and would not do anything that was not in your own self interest. Everyone else would do the same thing. In the case of the digital piracy, if you did not know if you would be a producer or consumer of digital media, you would not rationally agree to allow everyone to pirate digital media because you have a change of becoming the producer who would loose money by such actions. Therefore, according to Social Contract Theory, it is immoral to pirate digital media.
Location-Based Services (LBSs)
By Angel Alvarez User ID:Aalvarez123
--Aalvarez123 21:15, 30 November 2010 (CST)
Location-based services are basically web services that are shown with the combination of your location. For instances, you search for Pizza and Google or Bing will provide with places near your location. Those services work cross platforms, your computer (Windows, Mac, Linux, Most Smartphone today, etc) and popular browser support geo-location too, like Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, Opera, and Chrome. You might get ad that are related to you depending your location. All of this is suppose to make your experience in the internet seamless but at what cost. Location-based social networkings are basically social networks takes the user location and allow the user do different thing with it. For instance, share with your friends. Since mobile device today are becoming very popular and now companies can make GPS chips small enough to built-in in mobile device, Location-Based social networking are being accessed by mobile more and more every day. For instance, on February 10, 2010 more than 100 million people use their mobile devices to access Facebook every month.[10]. (Palihapitiya, 2010) There are different ways that they can determine your location for instances, using your Smartphone GPS or checking the IP address, other ways. For instances, Facebook allows you to check-in places you go to and they determine that using your smart phone GPS. One thing is that even though some people use location-based social networking there are not enough. “Tech companies are building the platforms, venture capitalists are providing the cash and marketers are eager to develop advertising. All that is missing are the people”[11] (Brustein, 2010). And according to Pew Research Center as August 2010 there were only 4% of American that actually used location-based services.[12] (Bustein, 2010). Men are more likely to use LBS than women.[13] (Brustein, 2010). Hispanics are most likely to use location-based services 10% compared to 3% of whites and 5 %of blacks[14] (Brustein, 2010).
Social Network: That use Location-based Services
Foursquare
Foursquare is one of the most popular location-based services. It has over 4 million users in the world as of October 2010.[15](foursquare.com/about). Besides sharing your location with your friends you can use foursquare to your benefit. As it’s mentioned in foursquare website that are business that are trying out foursquare to promote their business and at the same time they have special offers for the users. So you can take advantage of this if you don’t mind sharing your location, and you can discover new place that you didn’t notice that are around you and at the same time you might get discount. And as foursquare mentioned the business can even give special if you check-in and if you more than once you might get more discount. Foursquare provide what seems easy privacy setting. “Only your foursquare friends can see your feed of individual check-ins…Sometimes you’ll want to check in without sharing your specific whereabouts with friends. This is why we created “off the grid” check-ins -- a way of adding places to your check-in history, earning points and badges while letting your friends know you’re out, all without disclosing your specific location to them.”[16](foursquare.com/privacy/). And also as the site mentioned they give you the option of sharing your data to Facebook and twitter. Foursquare seems more about visiting place and maybe at the same time get discount compared to Facebook which might be just more about sharing with friends.
Facebook:
Facebook introduced similar location-based service with Places providing deals to user that check-ins in places. According to Facebook this feature allows you to see where your friends are and share your location. Facebook have four different type of deal according to Facebook.com, the deals are; Individual Deal, Friend Deal, Loyalty Deal, Charity Deal.
1. Individual Deal: You can offer this type of deal to both new and existing customers. You may create Individual Deals when you want to launch a new product, get rid of excess inventory, offer seasonal incentives, or simply get more people into your store (Facebook)[17].
2. Friend Deal: Friend Deals allow you to offer discounts to groups of up to 8 people, when they check in together. Friend Deals are a great way to build even more exposure for your business because more stories are generated when multiple people check-in. (Facebook)[18]
3. Loyalty Deal: To focus on rewarding your most loyal customers, create a Loyalty Deal. These deals may be claimed by customers only after a certain number of check-ins. Depending on your business, the number of check-ins may vary. Please note that you must create a deal that is redeemable after no fewer than two and no more than 20 check-ins.( Facebook)[19]
4. Charity Deal: Create a Charity Deal to make a donation to the charity of your choice. This is a great way for your business to give back to the community while adding a human touch to your business.(Facebook)[20]
Facebook right now is testing Deals with 23 companies, which includes Gap, North Face and other businesses.[21] (Ortutay, 2010). So when people check-in those stores might have some sort of deals. For instance, 24 Hour Fitness donates $1 to Kaboom for every check-in during certain time frame. (Ortutay, 2010). According to Facebook, Places is only available in certain part of the world right now it’s only available in United States, United Kingdom and Japan. Only it’s available for the IPhone, Android, Blackberry v1.9 or touch.facebook.com. (Facebook)[22]. As well as foursquare, Facebook provides privacy setting on how you share Places you’ve visited and they protect user that are under 18 years by reducing the information. Also you are not the only one that can check-in, your friends can check you in but you can disable that feature if you don’t want it.
“Discount vs. Over sharing:
Depending where you stand you can careless what you share with other. But are you really will to share information that easily. And if you do, it might affect you later on or it might not. Most popular LBSs might give the users privacy control but it doesn’t necessary means that the setting are easy or that user actually know about them. As Lahlou points, “users….do not protect themselves in practice” and “The problem is complex because the very nature of identity and social relations works against protecting personal data” (Lahlou, 2008). Like I said most users might not even know that they can control certain thing on the location-based social network site. And a lot of people have liked 300 friends in Facebook and they share their location without think that they don’t really know who’s behind the other screen. For instance, it’s not related to location-based service, but the same that happen in the story can happen, if you continue to share your location without thinking that a lot of people will see it. A woman who updated her status saying that she won’t be home got robbed because of the status update.[23](LaCapria, 2010). You can apply this to updating where you are. For instance, you check-in in store that it’s in Florida just because it gave you 20% off and you live in New York and one of those “friends” that you don’t know that much but you have as a friends doesn’t live a honest live and decides to steal from since you just said you were not home. To me updating your location is like screening in your neighborhood, I won’t be home the entire day, I’ll be in the other side of town. Or as well as leaving the door open and go to vacation to Hawaii. It’s like asking to be robbed, like a website that put together public check-ins.[24](Grove, 2010) It supposes to show how danger is to share your location to the public. To me it’s kind of creepy why I would want to know where you went. Also some location-based social network might mess up with users’ privacy, like Google Buzz “when accessed using a mobile device, the user’s location is broadcast to the world”.(Black, 2010). And one of the things that people show pay attention is the attitude that some of the leaders of important companies that basically affect millions and millions of people. For instance, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place,” Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said. (Black, 2010) Maybe what he said might be right but he shouldn’t say that, they’re suppose to protect and care about those people using their products because otherwise they won’t be who they are. Check-ins aren’t just to share where you are with your friends the mentally behind it is marketing. When you start sharing where you go, companies can learn more about you and target you with certain ads more personalized to your style. According to Lahlou “Geolocation systems…can provide detailed accounts of personal activity that will deeply affect privacy. At present, system designers rarely implement privacy-enhancing technologies” (Lahlou, 2008). Since these is a new technology there are a lot of ups and downs, one as mentioned above is that geolocation system are not implemented using correctly in regards to privacy.
Google Online Medical Records
Google launched an online service which lets users store and manage their health care information online. Many concerns over peoples privacy were brought up lately.The thought of my medical history being placed online scares me to death. As we all know the internet is a great place for hackers to find a huge amount of private information. Google claims the service will improve the health care system and save the country allot of money.Doctors who are taking care of patients in critical condition will be able to access their records in a matter of seconds. Google's intentions are good what they forgot to take into consideration are the risks associated with placing such delicate information online
Here is an interesting article which discusses the subject in depth. http://en.kioskea.net/actualites/google-launches-online-medical-records-service-10386-actualite.php3
Privacy on the Data Web
The World Wide Web in its current form, linking documents with hyperlinks in an associative network, has led to a number of concerns about issues related to privacy, copyright, and intellectual property.
The linked data Web, in which assorted data is brought together from dispersed sources relatively flawlessly with user-provided ontologies, allows information about individuals or organizations to be queried despite being collected at different times for different purposes, with different provenances and different formats. The benefits of such a Web are manifest but threats to personal privacy will also increase as boundaries blur between personal information published intentionally, that published conditionally (for example, to specific social networking sites for a specific audience) and information over which the subject has no control.
One way of expressing the problems that will face us is to ask the question “who owns all this data?” When it is personal data, surely we do? Surprisingly, the answer is no. Even if you enter the data yourself, for example onto some Internet service, you do not own it—the service generally does. You will have signed up for something in the small print—that is, you will tacitly have consented to handing over the data. Given the interactive nature of the Web where one creates data consciously and unconsciously all the time. It has always been somewhat flawed, with few limits to the uses to which data is put when consent to process has been lawfully obtained (and privacy policies may change after one has consented). Naive users and minors often treat policies, or terms and conditions, as a tedious box necessary to check to get onto a site, rather than as signing away their rights. But even when there are no problems of asymmetric information or proportionality, there are social issues to be considered—privacy is not a private matter. It impacts on a series of wider communities.
Given the benefits of wide access to data, it is important to ask whether “ownership” is the concept needed. In the first place, legal frameworks that define a type of data ownership for the subject are absent—these are facts about a person, not copyright material, intellectual property, or trade secrets.
The most important power of ownership is denial of access: if I own something, I can stop you using it. But this undermines the potential of the Web of linked data. In the old days the value of information was in its scarcity, but on the Data Web value comes from abundance, the ability to place information in new and unexpected contexts. Ensuring data is correct is more valuable than preventing its use. We should also not ignore the opposite pull from rights of access to information, as a corollary to rights of freedom of expression, while many people and organizations have legitimate interests in access to data. Under a data protection regime, individuals have the right to inspect and correct information being held about them, in theory allowing them to address issues of incorrectness, inappropriateness, excessiveness, and so on.
Regulation of the Web is a complex matter, crossing jurisdictions and posing problems for the W3C’s consensus- based standards approach. Regulation generally leverages normality, and is premised on common behavior and shared interpretations of a situation. It is more effective if it goes with the grain of a society’s norms, but online there is no “normal” behavior, as work on the scale-free aspects of the Web has repeatedly demonstrated, while user understanding of online situations is highly heterogeneous.
The Web moves so quickly that regulation is risky. It takes time and coordination across borders; by the time rules are in place, behavioral patterns may likely have changed, and all that is left is unintended consequences.
- O ’Hara, K. and Shadbolt, N., The Spy in the Coffee Machine: The End of Privacy As We Know It. Oneworld, Oxford, 2008.
- Pitt-Payne, T. Access to electronic information. In C. Reed, and J. Angel, Eds., Computer Law: The Law and Regulation of Information Technology, 6th ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007.
- S hadbolt, N., Hall, W., and Berners-Lee, T. The Semantic Web revisited. IEEE Intelligent Systems 23, 20 (April 2010), 96–101.
- H etcher, S.A. Norms in a Wired World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2004.
- Weitzner, D. et al. Information accountability. Commun. ACM 51, 6 (June 2008), 82–87.
- O'Hara K, Shadbolt N. Viewpoint: Privacy on the Data Web. Communications of the ACM [serial on the Internet]. (2010, Mar), [cited April 28, 2010]; 53(3): 39-41. Available from: Academic Search Complete.
Privacy and Online Shopping
Tools in our busy lives help make things easier. Online shopping is one of them. We can buy almost anything on the web. Those who buy online know that it is very convenient but do they really know what how dangerous it can be?
Chris Pickering, a senior consultant with the Cutter Consortium, a Boston research company, says the Internet has made personal data like a "genie in the bottle". "Once you let your information out on the Web, it's very hard to get it back," said Pickering. "Every new relationship with a Website should be approached with suspicion."
From now on follow precautions since your information can be used as a tool for identity theft. Many sites show how to protect yourself.
The main ones include:
1. Secure Connection
□ First, if you look at the top of your screen where the Web site address is displayed, you should see https://. The "s" that is displayed after "http" indicates that Web site is secure. Often, you do not see the "s" until you actually move to the order page on the Web site.
□ To determine if a Web site is secure is to look for a closed padlock displayed at the bottom of your screen. If that lock is open, you should assume it is not a secure site.
□ A symbol that indicates you are on a secure site is an unbroken key.
2. Research the Web Site Before You Order
It is very easy to order something but make sure you know the company as well if you are not sure about it do your homework and research. The best way is to make purchase with small amount of money so you can make sure it is not scam.
3. Read the Web Site's Privacy and Security Policies
Read the privacy policy of the e-commerce because this way you would know how you information is used and if they share with third parties. You can check if the company is the member of a seal-of-approval program that sets voluntary guidelines for privacy-related practices, such as TRUSTe (www.truste.org).
Even the policy doesn’t guarantee that the information would be used in right way since policies change all the time as well others can get your information by hacking the system.
4. What's Safest: Credit Cards, Debit Cards, Cash, or Checks?
Of course credit card is the safest way since you are protected under the federal Fair Credit Billing Act. You can dispute the charge, which you did not authorized and you are responsible for the first $50 but many times you do not even have to pay this.
DO not use you debit card, check card or ATM card since this way the information about you bank account could be accessed.
5. Never Give Out Your Social Security Number
Never provide you Social Security Number for any purchase because you do not need it in E-commerce. Providing this information could put you identity in danger.
6. Disclose Only the Bare Facts When You Order
When you place your order you need to put your name or address but do not put more information then need it. Many times more information is need it only for marketing purpose.
7. Keep Your Password Private
Most web site which do e-commerce require to set up password and login to be safe never tell anyone your password. You really do not know who will use it. At the time when you create password do not use common questions since people can figure out and be little creative and never use the same password for other web sites.
8. Always Print Copies of Your Orders
After placing an order online, you should receive a confirmation page that reviews your entire order. It should include the costs of the order, your customer information, product information, and the confirmation number. Make sure to print this site to prove that you purchased that product.
9. Shop with Companies Located in the United States
When you shop within the U.S., you are protected by state and federal consumer laws. You might not get the same protection if you place an order with a company located in another country.
10. Pay Attention to Shipping Facts
Under the law company needs to ship your product in the time stated in the ad other wise you should be able to cancel your order or you agree for delay.
11. Use Shopper's Intuition
Look at the site with a critical eye. And heed the old adage, "If it looks too good to be true, it probably is." Other wise I’m sure you will be able to find other company, which can provide you with the product.
12. Consider Using Single-use Card Numbers
Many banks and financial institutions offer virtual credit card which can has set up spending limit, expiration date and this way you do not have to give a way information of your credit card. They can also be used to buy goods and services over the phone and through the mail but can’t be used for in-store purchases that require a traditional plastic card.
Most important thing is that you should be aware of identity theft. As e-commerce becomes common, the stole identity committed over the Internet will be popular. Every technology brings cons but just right use can protect you from getting into hassle.
Anonymous. "Fact Sheet 23:Online Shopping Tips:E-Commerce and You." [25] (retrieved on 2010-04-30)
Tiltman, David. "Online privacy." Media: Asia's Media & Marketing Newspaper (2010): 7. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 Apr. 2010.
Larkin, Erik. "Go Virtual for Safer Online Shopping." PC World 27.11 (2009): 35-36. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 30 Apr. 2010.
Privacy and Secure surfing
To be anonymous online for security reasons, whether it is for shopping or posting on forums.Proxies can either be a separate computer system or application program that can hide ip. Some examples of web-based proxy servers:
* Anonymouse - Free anonymous surfing. * Art of IP Bending - Proxy with SSL support. * FilterSneak - Anonymizer to bypass web filters * Proxify - Free web proxy with optional removal of cookies, scripts, ads and referers. Requires cookies. * SlyUser - CGI Proxy site * Vtunnel - Web proxy supporting SSL
Privacy and the Internet
By Jiaying Peng User ID:Jpeng917
Internet is a worldwide network that connects millions of users globally. In the early stage of adopting the Internet, most people assume that they have the most privacy over the Internet. The reason for them to think in this way is because they think they are able to remain anonymity in the Internet. In this way, nobody will know who and where they are unless they tell other people. Of course, at the development of Internet's early stage, people are very possible to remain unknown. During the early stage period, people have little knowledge about how the Internet is built and functioned. They also have limited technology to access the inside of the Internet. However, with the passing of time, the technology of the Internet is becoming more and more transparent. Many people had learned how to use the Internet to do much thing that people never think about before. Then, people learned how to track those "unknown" users of the Internet easily. Furthermore, nowadays people can easily lose their personal information due to the expanding use of the Internet. Sometimes, people may even don't notice their personal information is stolen by others. These users usually realize their privacy is lost when there are something bad happen on them, such as criminal records, unfair treatment and unavailable of needed services, etc.
The following are the ways that how they lose their privacy (personal information like address, name, date of birth, credit card number, private pictures and so on) through their widely use of the Internet:
IP Address
IP Address is a code contains a set of numbers that identifies a particular computer on the Internet. Basically, this set of numbers was separated by three dots (For example, 123.589.457.568 or 88.25.93.271). In addition, the set of numbers usually is provided by users’ Internet Service Providers (ISP). TimeWannerCable[26], Verizon[27] and ComCast[28] are example of Internet Service Providers within the United States.
The only way people can access to the Internet is through the IP Address that their Internet Service providers (ISP) give them. Every users use this IP Address for accessing the Internet. Once a person sign up for an ISP account, all of his/her information will be given to ISP companies. In this way, users' personal information is attached to their IP Address once they get online. Users’ personal information usually includes address, name, and date of birth and so on. Hackers can use software to decode users' IP Address, and then retrieve all the personal information of users' easily. At the same time, these IP Addresses record every activity with time and place that users had done on the Internet. Usually, the Internet Service Providers save these records. Moreover, they (ISPs) are required by law to give these records to the police department for helping detection of crimes. Therefore, hackers and other people can track everything relate to the users by just analyzing users' IP address (Xirasagar and Mojtahed).In one sentence, there is no privacy exist in the Internet with the existence of IP Address. There are always ways to find out all the related information of users by using an IP Address. The IP Address is like a tag that attached with users once they got online.
Social networking sites
Nowadays, social networking sites are a popular trend that almost every person has to follow. These sites are needed for jobs, colleges, families, friends and other daily purposes. There are many serious privacy issues over these sites. First, these sites cannot one hundred percent grantee users that they are protected with privacy. For instance, Facebook expose users’ private email addresses for 30 minutes long because of the technical breakdown. Second, the secure setting sometimes is not secure at all, because hackers always are able to access users’ account without authorization. Third, other users may pose some private information which is related to other users. For example, user A post user B’s drunk picture on the Facebook which user B would not like the picture to show on the Internet. At this time, user B’s privacy is lost due to user A’s action. These problems are created by both non-human and human actions. Further, in these three issues, users don’t have the ability to control the flow of information, so that their privacy will be easier to lose than other people who are not using these social networking sites. Again, the more online services people use the more dangerous with people's privacy. Users should have a sense of losing privacy when they get online.
“No Worry” if you do nothing wrong
In Johnson’s book “Computer Ethic”, he raised an interesting argument about how people will be affected by losing privacy over the Internet even if they do nothing wrong. He indicated that due to the wrongfulness of information, inappropriate use of information and unauthorized accesses, although users have done nothing wrong will lead them to troubles and law suits. In one of his examples, the lady put her landlord to the court because her landlord did not fix the apartment problem for her. After the court case was ended, she was keep rejected by landlord when she tried to rent another apartment. Later on, she found that her name is in the list of “people who will sue the landlords”, and this list was sold through the Internet to each landlords. The lady did nothing over this case, she just want to protect her own right by putting her landlord to the court, but she was treated unfairly by other landlord also. Let’s put this situation in another way, if this lady was in an age that without access of the Internet, this list would not be transferred so easily and widely. Thus, this lady will not be rejected by a wide range of landlords because she is in the list of “people who will sue the landlords”. Johnson shows people that losing privacy over the Internet indeed does matter no matter what people do is right or wrong. Privacy is an important issue that would affect many aspects of people's normal life. Hence, people's point of view on thinking privacy is not an important issue is not supported by the facts that people are facing. We should take the privacy problems serious nowadays due to the continiously development of privacy.
Citations:
Johnson, D. G. (2009). Computer Ethic (Fourth Edition ed.). Virginia: Pearson.
Mills,Elinor. (2010). New Facebook Scam Exploits User Vanity
TechTerms. IP Address. [29], November 29, 2010. Retrieved November 29, 2010 from CBS News.
Xirasagar, S., & Mojtahed, M.. (2010). Securing IP networks. Network Security, 2010(1), 13-17. Retrieved November 21, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1958563161).
Palihapitiya, C. (2010, February 10). Facebook Mobile: 100 Million and Growing. Retrieved 2010, from Facebook.com: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=297879717130
Brustein, J. (2010, 11 08). BITS-LIttle Growth In 'Checking In'- Web Log - NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2010, from NYTimes.com: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E3D91E39F93BA35752C1A9669D8B63
Bustein, J. (2010, 11 06). Do Consumers Want Location-Based Social Networking? - NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2010, from NYTimes.com: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/07/weekinreview/07brustein.html
Black, N. (2010). Commentary: Social Media, geolocation and privacy, oh my! Daily Record, The ( Rochester, NY); 02/19/2010 .
Facebook. (n.d.). Facebook. Retrieved 2010, from Help Center| Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=19067
Facebook. (n.d.). Facebook. Retrieved 2010, from Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=18837
foursquare.com/about. (n.d.). foursquare. Retrieved 2010, from foursquare: http://foursquare.com/about
foursquare.com/privacy/. (n.d.). foursquare.com. Retrieved 2010, from http://foursquare.com/privacy/
Grove, J. V. (2010, 02 17). Are we all asking to robbed? Retrieved 2010, from Mashable.com: http://mashable.com/2010/02/17/pleaserobme/
LaCapria, K. (2010, March 26). Indiana woman claims Facebook status update prompted robbery. Retrieved 2010, from The Inquisitr: http://www.inquisitr.com/67891/keri-mcmullen-facebook-status-update-burglary/
Lahlou, S. (2008). Identity, Social Status, Privacy and Face-keeping in digital Society. Social Science Information , 299-330, 32.
Ortutay, B. (2010, 11 03). Yahoo. Retrieved 2010, from Yahoo! Finance - Business Finance, Stock Market, Quotes, News: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Discounts-offered-in-Facebook-apf-3488289333.html?x=0&.v=6
Beal, Vangie. "How to Defend Yourself Against Identity Theft". http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2006/identity_theft.asp
Boyd, Danah M., and Nicole B. Ellison. “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship”. Journal of Computer-mediated Communication, 2007. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html
Collins, J. Carlton. "Fortify Your Facebook Privacy Settings." Journal of Accountancy 209.6 (2010): 4245. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. Web. 23 Apr. 2011
Friedman, Linda Weiser and Friedman, Hershey H.,The New Media Technologies: Overview and Research Framework(April 2008). pages 9-24 http://ssrn.com/abstract=1116771
Grimmelmann, James. “Saving Facebook” Iowa Law Review 94 (2009): 1137- 1206.
Jeff H. Smith. "Managing Privacy: Information Technology and Corporate America". The University of North Carolina Press.
Merriam-Webster Online. 10 May 2009. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/privacy
Gross, Ralph, and Alessandro Acquisti. "Information Revelation and Privacy in Online Social Networks." WPES '05 Proceedings of the 2005 ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society. ACM Workshop on Privacy in the Electronic Society (WPES), 7 Nov. 2005. Web. 9 Mar. 2011. <http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1102214&coll=DL&dl=ACM&retn=1#Fulltext>.
Wolpert-Gawron, Heather. "Social Media in Education: The Power of Facebook." Web log post. Heather Wolpert-Gawron. Edutopia.org, 7 May 2010. Web. 2 Apr. 2011. <http://www.edutopia.org/social-media-education-examples-facebook>.
