Social media privacy has long been a topic of interest. If you boil down the term you have two important concepts social media and privacy. The words social media imply that there is some media that you want to distribute to friends or within your social group. A social media company aims to offer you a solution to distributing your media. One good way to get usership is to offer a free product as most social media companies do. these companies however are not not for profit companies, as a company, their goal is to make money and inturn will sell advertising spaces on the platform and sell the data that you have entered on the platform to make money. Privacy the other word in the topic of discussion is important because generally people prefer to maintain some aspect of freedom and aloneness in life without the intrusion of unwanted people or entities. Social media privacy is an issue because the two ideas conflict, can you remain social while also being private ? what privacy values do you have that you might wave in order to get a free product? These are some of the ideas central to why social media privacy is an issue. I will look at whether I agree or disagree with some of the myths regarding social media privacy.
I do not think that new technologies threaten your privacy. I would say that in fact the new technologies have been instrumental in protecting privacy. The value of data as an asset is large and growing just like any other asset it is essential that your asset is retained. Just as you would spend money on a safe to keep your cash safe companies spend lots to ensure that their asset is safe, in this case data. This continual development is key in internet security and safety. Another reason technology does not threaten your privacy is that technology is used by people, you wouldn’t blame the camera if someone installed a secret camera in your bedroom and uploaded footage to the internet.
It is thought by some people that you have the right to be forgotten in the context of the internet. I think that this is a myth. I instead prefer to think that you have an ability to abstain from being remembered. If I met someone on the street I couldn’t tell them to erase their memory of me, but if I abstain from meeting that person then they have no reason to remember me in the first place. you have the individual right to remember as someone cant control your thoughts. to tell people they have the right to be forgotten infringes on someone else’s right to think freely and remember.
I disagree that it is a myth that social media companies threaten your privacy. I think that with the amount of information social media companies have about people is enough to threaten your privacy. if you allow instagram access to your location services they can know where you are at any point. You have also agreed that instagram can own this information and give it to people for their purposes but there is a chance that a social media company can be hacked and have this information unwillingly taken this violates your privacy beyond what you agreed in the instagram terms and conditions. There is an inherent threat to privacy posed on the internet and what you are willing to give to companies is personal choice but know that if it is private information then you are allowing a social media company to violate your privacy.
I think that consumers do care about privacy, otherwise why would I be talking about this. Software privacy would not be a topic of discussion if consumers were not interested in their privacy. Some people choose to opt out of services that may pose a risk to their privacy. Many people delete their social media to distance themselves from privacy threats posed by the platforms or choose to never install social media. This however is a small share compared to those who are willing to forgo some of their privacy in order to be social.
All in all I believe that there will be more conversations about social media privacy in the future. Being social and remaining private are conflicting ideas and therefore there will be arguments from both sides of the spectrum regarding how privacy should be handled in the context of social media. I think being able to retain your privacy may get harder as we proceed into a more and more internet based society where social media companies continue to provide better services that might be worth losing a bit of privacy for if you weren’t willing to give up that privacy beforehand.
James Sommerville CP373 Blog 