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Daniel Gomez- Perry

Professor Adam Padgett
English 1102
7 April 2014
Social Media and How it Affects Personal and Professional Privacy
For two2 decades now humanity has been knitting a web of networks around the
vastness of the world, trying to virtually link every single individual with the rest of the
globe, the idea is to connect everyone through a single engine, a virtual location where
people can share facts, ideas, hobbies, and communicate with others. This networking
process is rapidly evolving into new ways; new sites are spawning, each new one more
slick, more efficient, attempting to reach the culmination of all communicating success.
The great benefits this progress brings with it are pushing humanity to strive to higher
communication standards; progressively it is simplifying lifestyles and helping humanity
advance into modernity. Habbo, then Friendster, MySpace came after, Facebook then
spawned, Twitter following after. Each one growing more efficient, slick, and innovative.
Connecting users around the world faster and faster, helping individuals reunite with long
lost friends and family, connecting companies for quicker businesses, helping the press
quickly spread information of current events: wars, political ordeals, or murders. All this
social networking has pushed us to be an efficient world, communicating quicker and at
longer distances. But even with this enriching and fulfilling progress many problems
have also risen. With the ability to share information with anyone, negative repercussions
tend to settle. This openness can lead to privacy issues with individual users;
subsequently they have hurt many individuals privacies, both personally and
Comment [AP1]: A really good and well-
phrased title that speaks to what this essay
will ultimately be about.
Comment [AP2]: But in actuality too,
right? I mean those fiber optic cables are all
over the planet.
Comment [AP3]: Well-phrased here as
well. You do a really good job establishing a
reasonable tone here.
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professionally. These issues have shaped many individuals lives drastically creating a
difficult environment to live in. Shouldnt these social networking sites search for a
solution to this problem? With great effort, humanity has dedicated itself to sew this
enormous web of complex communication networks; if these privacy issues are
threatening its users then there should be more concern into finding solutions to fix these
threats to privacy.
Particularly Facebook has been a targeted network with cracks and holes filled in
their privacy aspect. They have been charged with harsh privacy defects, and were
subsequently categorized as the second lowest site for substantial and comprehensive
privacy threats, by an organization called the Privacy International. (Debatin , Lovejoy
and Horn 84). This charge was based on the matters of data matching, transfers made to
companies, and above all they were matters of gathering information about the users.
Although Facebook is a great site to share personal data with others it is also filled with
privacy threats that can affect any of its users. One would generally think that whatever
we place on Facebook can only be seen by our families and friends, but with a few
changes in computer coding the privacy of the information can be sent anywhere. For
example Facebook has consciously put private information such as private photos, credit
card numbers and medical test results into the wrong individuals hands. (Andrews). This
can certainly affect a persons private personal life, it can create problems with what
should and should not be posted online. For example, a few years ago, a middle school
student was being investigated for posting a threat to kill another student in the school.
(Nissenbaum 59) This demonstrates how the lack of privacy in social media sites can
spread information that can threaten an individuals privacy, although the student was a
Comment [AP4]: But arent they? With
privacy settings?
Comment [AP5]: I would agree with you,
but like I said, dont they have privacy
settings? You might need to get more
specific with regards to what exactly you
think is lacking.
Comment [AP6]: Ah, very interesting.
Comment [AP7]: Keep the period after the
parenthetical.
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delinquent in posting that on MySpace, he would not have been placed under
investigation if the lack of privacy in MySpace were so accessible. This definitely shows
how the government can use everything you post online against you. In a very simple
example there was a case of public urination at a University, the police did not know who
the perpetrators were and the only bystander was not able to recognize them. The culprits
decided to place this on Facebook; subsequently they were discovered by the police and
were each fined $145 and $195 for public urination and obstruction of justice. (Debatin ,
Lovejoy and Horn 85) This shows how Facebook and other social networks are badly
managing their privacy settings and how people are getting in trouble for it. Posting
online has benefitted the government greatly with attaining information from individuals,
the government used to have to get warrants to find private information about people,
now the government can just monitor Facebook posts and Google searches to obtain
individuals information. (Andrews) This is taking our privacy rights away from under
our feet. Even though the examples given were of people who did commit these crimes,
what if an individual innocently posted information on Facebook this information could
potentially incriminate the individual and be used against him.
Not only can the government have their hands on your personal privacy online,
but also it can be in other individuals hands that have bad intentions in using it.
Criminals with your privacy in their hands is not a very good mix, this can result in very
bad consequences. There is a new way of social networking that is not very mainstream
but demonstrates how threatening social media can be. Foursquare, Dodgeball and
Facebook Places are a few of them; their service consists with providing other users with
the current location of the user. This can definitely expose many privacy threats to the
Comment [AP8]: So Im getting a little
confused in your logic. It seems to me that
documenting this threat is a good thing. It
seems that you are saying he shouldnt have
been investigating for threatening the life of
someone else.
Comment [AP9]: But if the threat was a
verbal one or a written one (or in any other
medium) that would still be an
investigateable offense, right?
Comment [AP10]: Not sure that these are
great examples because it sounds like they
were asking for it.
Comment [AP11]: I feel like you are
adopting a tone that is very suspicious of the
government. Is this your intention?
Comment [AP12]: Doesnt the user have
the option to turn those settings on or off?
Also, doesnt the user have to option to be
use these social media in the first place? So
if they are concerned about their privacy,
cant they just delete their account?
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users, who is to say theres no one else at home? Are burglars actively trolling social
media trying to figure out who is where? (Young 75) Another example of how social
media is exposing peoples personal privacies and threatening them is with a scandal that
occurred a few years ago. Fitbit threatened the privacies of users. Fitbit is a portable
device that tracks fitness by recording what the user eats and the calorie burning activities
they commit themselves to. Once the user gets home the information is uploaded to a
website that can be shared with other users. Sharing this information promotes
competition within the users to exert themselves to exercise more. Some 200 Fitbit users
were not aware that their information was being put online; a lot of very revealing and
embarrassing information was exposed. Details about their lives such as breaking their
diet to when the user had sex, this included the time it lasted and with the amount of
effort they exerted could be found a Google search away. For example one of the users
shared his sexual activity, its details said Active, vigorous effort. Started at 11:30. 1
Hour 30 Minutes. (Andrews) This proofs how peoples personal lives can really be
affected, their dignities can be crushed, and subsequently their reputations can also be
negatively impacted, just because social networks are failing to provide better privacy
services.
Another vital aspect of privacy that is being significantly threatened is the
professional point. Many workers and students are getting in trouble or even being laid
off or expelled for posting information on social media sites. These postings are usually
unintentional but they have brought many problems for professionals and subsequently
placed them in great amounts of trouble. For example in a research done for US medical
schools in regards to posting unprofessional things online, there was a 13% proportion of
Comment [AP13]: This is really interesting
here. so you seem to be talking about people
unwittingly giving up their privacy. I think
you should frame your argument more so
around that idea, that users dont realize
how much privacy their actually giving up.
Comment [AP14]: You need to cite this
specifically. I feel like you are assuming Ill
just take your word for it.
Comment [AP15]: Okay, this is really
interesting, but I need to get a better sense
of how much of this you are getting from
this source. Because the way youve
structured this so far, Im not sure which is
from this source and which is just from you.
Comment [AP16]: Yikes.
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students posting violations of patient confidentiality, posts using profanity accounted for
52%, discriminatory posts reached 48%, and pictures of students intoxicated accounted
for 39%. This concerns medical school gravely; these proportions can negatively affect
the portrayal of organizations in the public eye. (Clark 104) They can affect how
people perceive the companys professionalism, the more social media lacks privacy the
more it is exposing companies to bad professional reputation. Currently many employers
have strict rules for e-mail and Internet use, but social networking sites are more
different. They set different challenges, but should be addressed in a similar matter so
employees are not put into threat due to the lack of privacy of social networks. (Clark
104) There is an example of a case in which a middle school teacher got in trouble for
posting pictures of her consuming alcohol at a social gathering, a parent had allegedly
seen these pictures online and had sent an anonymous complaint to the school. The
teacher got in trouble for putting those online, the parent also said the teachers constant
use of the word bitch online was an indication for why the parents daughter had
learned that word and was constantly using it. The teacher got into trouble and was
receiving a bad reputation for this situation. (Andrews) It was an uncomfortable situation
for the teacher and she learned to be extremely careful with what she placed online. Even
benign posts like putting a picture of friends drinking alcohol can place a person in
trouble, if this is currently occurring social media sites should definitely take the initiative
to fix this problem.
A survey done in 2008 asked college admissions officers whether they had gone
into applicants social networking sites, 10% said they had done so, 38% of that group
said that viewing their social networking sites had actually affected their decision on
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accepting the applicant. One of the college admissions officers rejected an applicant who
bragged for feeling that he had already gotten into the college, and also that he felt like he
didnt want to attend that school. (Andrews) Another case for the violation of privacy and
affecting future professional prospectives was with a recent college grad that applied for
a job with a large talent agency. His interview was cancelled a few hours prior. They said
that the student had pictures posted on Facebook of him drinking alcohol. (Andrews) This
really demonstrates how social networking sites are really affecting the professionalism
in workers and students. It is a grave matter that should really be evaluated and a solution
should be found, because all these workers and students are exposing themselves, and
sometimes it is not fair to lose great opportunities for benign posts online.
Although humanity is almost reaching the summit of success with the evolution of
communication there are still some lingering issues that should be looked at more
thoroughly so individuals are not threatened in any way. A solution must be found to
subside these issues, that includes privacy threats aiming towards personal or professional
aspects. Humanity has to work together so these threats are eliminated. So these great
innovations are not seen as a cause for negative repercussions but instead are recognized
for their great aid on society.


Daniel,
Youve done a really great job here arguing your point and using your sources in
conversation with the other. You clearly have a distinct voice in this paper and create a
strong sense of purpose. I do want you to reconsider your approach slightly. It seems that
Comment [AP17]: Im not sure what this
means. Are you saying theres a finite
amount of advancement we can make,
technologically?
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you are urging someone (else) to find a solution to the problem youre proposing. But the
tone of the paper suggest not necessarily that some vague solution needs to be found; the
tone of the paper suggests a buyer beware type of tone. So in other words it seems that
your augment is for the average user to be vigilant about what information they put out
there and which apps that divulge information to. I think you really need to reconsider the
what you want your reader to walk away with, what you want to accomplish with this
paper. Otherwise, great work here.




Works Cited
Andrews, Lori B. I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and
the Death of Privacy. New York: Free Press, 2012. Print.

Clark, JR. "Social Media and Privacy." Air Medical Journal. 29.3 (2010). Print.

Debatin, Bernhard, Jennette P. Lovejoy, Ann-Kathrin Horn, and Brittany N. Hughes.
"Facebook and Online Privacy: Attitudes, Behaviors, and Unintended
Consequences." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. 15.1 (2009): 83-
108. Print.

Nissenbaum, Helen F. Privacy in Context: Technology, Policy, and the Integrity of Social
Life. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Law Books, 2010. Print.

Young, Nora. The Virtual Self: How Our Digital Lives Are Altering the World Around
Us. Toronto, Ont: McClelland & Stewart, 2012. Print.



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