Privacy and Social Networks Essay

Privacy seems to encompass everything, and therefore it appears to be nonhing in itself (Solove, 2008, p. 7). It is an oversimplification to define privacy as totally what an case-by-case owns. With the evolution of unfermented technologies nowadays, it is very toil about to define privacy beca phthisis it varies from one person to anformer(a) and from one culture to a nonher (Solove, 2008). With the rise of kind mesh topologys during the last decade, new views well-nigh privacy started to emerge receivable to its special mechanism in communion instruction. hearty networks enable drug users to instantly sh be information, thoughts, photos, products and videos with the m whatever users in the network at once. Unlike other(a) means of communication, the information in gateible networks gouge spread to hundreds of users in seconds. Then, the users who received the information whitethorn share it among their network, and then further to other networks, which will end u p in spreading the information to millions of people in no time, just like a chain re implement. This new mechanism of sharing, which is bonnie faster every day, raised new concerns about privacy among individuals and organizations.In spite of all these concerns about the personal privacy on the mixer networks, genial networks websites are the most visited websites in the internet. For example, Facebook has r to each oneed 901 million periodic active users in April, 2012 (Hachman, 2012). Although cordial networks enables an easy sharing of cliquish information about individuals or broken in profile information about organizations, individuals and organization should non be algophobic of using friendly networks due to privacy concerns, and instead they should be more public and utilize the kindly network.Being public and turn over to the world is better than be private and closed because it enables people to learn from others personal experience. Naturally, any individua l or organization benefits from communicating with others. Nevertheless, communication with others, regardless of the mean of communication, usually involves giving a trend some private information to the other. However, sociable networks empowered the world a new mean of communication that benefits all the users in the network by sharing private information.For example, an individual gouge share some precedent experiences such as overcoming an illness, eating habit, or making a project. Being shitless of sharing experience, because of privacy, would still deprive others from benefit of these experiences. According to Tapscott (2012) Fully 20 percent of all patients with the fatal disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis share intimate information about their treatment and condition on the network PatientsLikeMe. com. And tens of thousands of others with rare diseases who use that website give out that sharing has helped them better manage their illness.Because the affectionate n etwork enabled them to share information about their health check conditions, which is very private information, they supported each others with valuable information about their disease and inspired each others with their experience. Social networks enhanced collaboration, which in return brings benefits to all individuals, at the cost of personal information. Some may argue that because of posting private information on social networks, some employee may suffer from being fired from or being denied for a job.In other words, social networks negatively affect engagement because they allow the employers or managers to access an employees or a job applicators private information. For example, Andrews (2012) states in her book that a high school teacher, called Ashly Payne, was asked to resign because she uploaded a photo of her on Facebook drinkable an alcoholic drink even though it is legal to drink in her country. She also claims that employers will not hire soulfulness whose F acebook page includes photo of that person drinking or in provocative nip (p. 122).However, the information on social networks could not be used against an employee or a job appli potfult because it is considered unethical and under-the-counter. First, it is unethical to judge a worker from the personal aspects rather than working skills. Besides, Jarvis (2011) defines privacy as the morality of knowing and publicness as the ethics of sharing (p. 110). Therefore, it depends how the individual record others information. On the other hand, employers rear end also look into a job applicants profile in a social network to see his/her previous experience in work.Second, it is illegal to consecrate ecision on an employee or a job applicant based on social networks personal information. Furthermore, this act is considered discrimination and the company can be sued for this action (Waring & Buchanan, 2010). Therefore, employees and job applicants should not be afraid of posting inform ation in social networks. Social network is a safe place to share private information with others. The main let on is that private data on the social network is accessible anytime and anywhere. Without a doubt, the privacy of individuals profile data in the social network should be cherished to make the network a safer place for sharing.Therefore, many social networks provide powerful tools to hold up the access on private information. First, social networks do not grant access to other users profile data anonymously. In order to access any data even if it is public, the individual needs gain the social networks practice by registering an neb in the social network. This enables the social network electric pig delay over the social network. Second, the user can choose who is able to view his/her profile private information and what information others can see. For instance, the user can block accounts, specify groups and set privileges.Third, social networks also provide a help center to report abuse of the serve such as spamming, bullying or hateful speeches. The social network administration can stop any account permanently or even take legal action if an individual is reported abusing others privacy. Finally, most social networks provide a parental control to help parents control how their children use the social network. Since social networks rely on the trust between the users, these tools does not only make a social network a safer place, but also trustworthy.Richters and Peixoto (2011) performed a research to show the transitivity of trust in social networks. They found out that people decide who to trust based on other peers who trust. To emphasize this to the topic, users trust only specific users over their private information and thus they trust the social network. Conversely, trusting the social network increases the trust among the users. In addition, trustworthiness implies a social network safety, which in return means users being more com fortable sharing their information using the social network.For example, one of the reasons that made Facebook the most successful social network is the trustworthy of the users. According to Jesdanun (2006, as cited in Fogel & Nehmad, 2009), because Facebook was only restricted for students, the users felt safer to share data through the social network. Nowadays, Facebook is open to the public, but they are very strict in term of network safety. In fact, Fogels and Nehmads (2009) research statistics showed that those who had social networking profiles had significantly greater mean scores indicating that they believed Facebook is a more trustworthy social network (p. 175).For any social network to be successful, the social network has to maintain the trust of their users through the safety of the social network. Therefore, social networks are trustworthy over the users private in the social network. Despite of these control tools, some may argue that social networks still a potenti al threat to the users privacy. For instance, many believe that social networks made a fertile ground for identity stealing and chaff. People usually fear the engineering because social networks are also considered one of them, every possible problem falls under the umbrella of privacy concerns on social networks.Privacy, however, is not only autocratic the data access, but also controlling how it is used or interpreted (Boyd, 2010). Let us discuss these problems one by one. First, identity larceny occurs when someone steals someones secret information and pretending to be that person. According to Jarvis, the identity stealing issue is less an issue of privacy than larceny (2011, p. 96). Assuming it is an issue of privacy, suppose someone hacked someone elses account or page on a social network, thus accessing or using the dupes information. Should this be considered the social network fault?The user, the victim, probably did not take security precautions to protect what he/sh e considered a private data. Additionally, the social network provides tools to retrieve, to report or to suspend a stolen account. Second, stalking is obsessively observing an individuals behavior or information. Unfortunately, stalking can mostly be from those who have access to the profile information such as friends and coworkers. However, it still depends on how they interpret the information. For example, if someone knew that his friend is getting divorced, he decides whether to support him, help him, or stand against him.Social networks databases do not only contain data about their users, but also how the users interactions with the social networks and other users. Therefore, the data in social networks are very valuable as some refers to it as the new oil. Social networks use these data, through data mining, to improve its services and to gain revenue. Most social networks gain revenue from targeted advertising. For example, if a user often reads about cars, or writes post s related cars, the data mining system is deviation to assume this user is interested in cars.Therefore, the social network shows that user advertisements related to cars within the users living area. Social networks created a new marketing option that helps the companies to expand their production and services (Andresen, 2011). On the other hand, data mining and targeted advertisement raises new privacy concern in social networks. For example, some users may feel uncomfortable when these advertisements are based on some information that were marked as private, a personal chat with a friend for instance.However, data mining and targeted advertising does not violate privacy laws or ethics. According to Seltzer research in data mining ethics (2005) like most statistical methodologies data mining by itself is ethically neutral (p. 1441). This is mainly because the data mining process is carried on by computer programs, which will not interact with these data the way a human would. Th ey will not develop any judgment or feelings about the user no matter how sensitive the data is.Moreover, social networks provide advertisers with anonymous statistical data. In other word, advertisers do not know the identities of users in the statistics provided by the social network. In conclusion, social networks are new powerful tool for communication with the others. The data on the social networks are can easily be accessed anywhere and anytime, and therefore this created a controversial debate between privacy and the social networks. However, being afraid of using social networks would have only deprived the benefits of using these tools.Besides, employees and job applicants should not be afraid of using social networks because their information in social networks could not be used against them as it is considered illegal and unethical to be used against them. Nevertheless, social networks provide powerful tools to control over the users private information, thus implying th at the social networks are trustworthy over private information. In sprit of all privileges control tools, many people believe that the social networks can cause problems such as identity theft and stalking.However, these problems are not necessarily due to social networks, but instead it is due to how people interpret the information in the social networks. As a result the, the user should be more wary when posting a sensitive data and think before sharing any information. Finally, because social networks databases contains big amount of data, social networks created a new form of business using these data while protect the identity of the data. Therefore, individuals and organization should not concern privacy when using social networks and utilize its benefits.