NOVEMBER 21, 2014

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND PRIVACY

THE RISK OF SHARING TOO MUCH
REATEGUI SILES, DEBBIE
ENGLISH 2116-006

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ABSTRACT

Online social networks are websites that allow users to build connections and
relationships to other Internet users. It is dangerous to put certain information out on
these websites, we need to be aware and learn how to properly use these social
networks. Solutions are to have a social
media

awareness

campaign,

have

website with tools on how to make sure you

are protecting your information, have social
media websites explain their privacy settings
in

an easier

matter.

Overall,

to

bring

awareness to this issue.

INTRODUCTION
Online social networks are websites
that allow users to build connections and
relationships to other Internet users. Social
networks store information remotely, rather
than on a users personal computer. Social
networking can be used to keep in touch
with friends, make new contacts and find
people with similar interests and ideas. In
todays world everybody has a profile in
some kind of social media website. If you are
one of the hundreds of millions of people
using

social

networks,

theres

good

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chance that you are linked to them through an online relationship.
The information you share with your online contacts allows you to keep in touch
without much effort. But who else is looking at that information? And how are they
going to use it? Identity thieves, scam artists, debt collectors, stalkers, and corporations
looking for a market advantage are using social networks to gather information about
consumers. Companies that operate social networks are themselves collecting a
variety of data about their users, both to personalize the services for the users and to sell
to advertisers.

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THE PROBLEM
With the growing of the internet the risks are also growing. We as human like to
share and the internet has made it easy for us to do just that. We share just about
anything these days and with that we are putting ourselves at risk for multiple things.
Some of the things that we are putting ourselves at risk for by sharing too much
information are identity theft, Malware, Social engineering, and even death. It is
dangerous to put certain information out on the Internet and we need to be aware
and learn how to properly use these social networks.

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PLAN OF ACTION
Having done my share of research and trying to figure out the best way to
communicate to people on how to be more aware of what they are sharing on the
internet I came up with a few solutions. My solutions are to have a social media
awareness campaign, have a website with tools on how to make sure you are
protecting your information, have social media websites explain their privacy settings in
an easier matter.
After watching the video Social Media Experiment I believe that this is a video
that drew a lot of attention and made people realize how much information they really
put out there of themselves. Actually going out and trying to find information about
people is the best way to get their attention. With this maybe making a website that
they can search their names or usernames and the website will compile all the
information about them that it can gather. Another solution could also be to get
people to search their names on google.com and see what all they can find out about
themselves. I feel that even making a reality show out of it would bring more attention
to it.
Nowadays I feel like there are campaigns
to bring awareness to just about everything. If we
made a campaign to really bring awareness to
this social media issue people would become
more aware of how important privacy settings
and not sharing personal information really is.
Some of the main points to touch would be to get
people to become more familiar with the privacy
settings available on any social network they use, to not share birthdays, age, or place
of birth, and to stay aware on changes made to social networks terms of service and
privacy policies.

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Having said this I feel that it is also a social networks responsibility to keep their
users informed of changes in their privacy policies and terms of service as make it easy
for them to be able to change their settings. Facebook alerts their users when any
changes have been done and makes sure that they agree to them. They also alert on
the multiple ways that they can share information as well as hide information from other
users. Check your privacy settings often. Privacy policies and default settings change
often and it is good to always keep up with them. Also, Use caution when using thirdparty applications. These applications many times have access to many and all of your
information if you do not choose carefully and control your settings. If you consider
using one, review the privacy policy and terms of service for the application.
Overall,
remember that nothing
that you post online is
temporary.
you

Anything

post

cached,

can

be

stored,

or

copied and can follow

you forever. Stay aware
and

help

awareness

spread
of

the

importance of knowing
what and where you
post information as well as keeping up with privacy policies and terms of service.

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ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Catherine Dwyer, Starr Roxanne Hiltz, Katia Passerini. Trust and Privacy Concern Within
Social Networking Sites: A Comparison of Facebook and MySpace. Article.
Subjects from Facebook and MySpace expressed similar levels of concern
regarding internet privacy. Facebook members were more trusting of the site and its
members, and more willing to include identifying information in their profile. Yet
MySpace members were more active in the development of new relationships.
These results show that the interaction of trust and privacy concern in social
networking sites is not yet understood to a sufficient degree to allow accurate
modeling of behavior and activity. The results of the study encourage further
research in the effort to understand the development of relationships in the online
social environment and the reasons for differences in behavior on different sites.
Jack Vale, Social Media Experiment. Video
This video really shows how unsafe it is to have a social network without
strong privacy settings. I chose to use this video because I feel that it was a great
example on how nothing is private and anybody can easily access your information
on the internet if you are not careful. In this video the narrator access multiple
Instagram accounts and then hunts the people by their location locater. He continues
to tell the person their life story as told on Instagram.
Susan B. Barnes.A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States. Article.
Currently social responses to privacy in social networks do not tend to deal
with the potential misuse of personal information. Instead the response is based on
the protection of children against predators, which is only one aspect of the privacy
paradox. Similarly, a legal response has been the proposal of a bill to protect
underage children. The government and industry responses tend to focus on the
issue of predators and this focus distracts from the actual privacy issue the social
behavior of teenagers on the Internet and the use and misuse of their private
information. The solution to the paradox is not simple. It will take all levels of society
to tackle the social issues related to teens and privacy. Awareness is key to solving
the solution. We as individuals need to be more proactive about educating each other
and protecting our privacy on the Internet.