Free Essay About Social Networking Sites And Privacy

In the present time of communication innovations, social networking sites have become a major part of person’s daily routine. Some may say that they could not live a day without visiting their Facebook profile or posting on Twitter. But one major issue that is associated with the way these technologies are operating on is the loss of privacy. People could not be really sure that what they are posting or including on social networking sites are safe from other people. In fact, social networks, lawmakers and online users could be responsible for the lack of users’ privacy on social networking sites. Among these three, online users are responsible for their own loss of privacy since they are not aware of the issue of privacy loss. They are responsible for all their actions and they should be careful on what they are sharing to the Internet.
Privacy is not the same as it was; in the past, people only used diaries to share their own feelings, thoughts and experience and keep them in their own lockers or drawers. That was changed by blogs, posts and tweets, which they include in their own social media accounts. These feelings, thoughts and experiences, or in general, a person’s privacy is safe from other people if they kept it properly. It is true that socializing or social interaction is essential for an individual’s social development. However, it does not mean that people have to share all their feelings, thoughts and experiences in order to have social interaction.
The analogy of the privacy loss on social networking sites is the same as a person having a tattoo. A picture, comment, post and anything a person includes in the social networking sites is like a personal tattoo. It will be on the Internet or social networking sites forever as long as the person does not remove it. The individual may regret posting the picture or comment in the future. In this analogy, the one who is responsible is the person who agrees to have a permanent tattoo or in this case the one who posts the picture or comment. Therefore, the tattoo artist is the social network who only tends to the needs of the person.
As a matter of fact, people usually blame social networks for their poor service in protecting their user’s personal privacy. There are several issues about how social networks and their partners such as Facebook and Zynga tried to acquire personal data from people without them noticing it. The issue could be serious and could become evidence that social networks are responsible for the lack of user’s privacy on the networking sites. Acquiring personal data from individual users could be very easy for the social networks. They could use their acquired personal data from the individual users for many things.
However, these social networks are only successful in their business as providers of social media since people are letting them to be more successful. In other words, people are using their services every day and the demand on social media is very high. According to Nicholas Thompson in Bigger Brother: The Exponential Law Of Privacy Loss article “the more we do online, the better companies get at tracking us, and the more accurate and detailed the data they glean from us becomes.” In general, people have the power to change the course of technology associated with social networking but they are only letting the social networks to have control over us. As Farhad Manjoo It’s Not All Facebook’s Fault “ Facebook is a powerful tool, and the reason that so many people slip up on the site is that we fail to appreciate its power” (Manjoo).
Some people argue that law makers are also responsible for the lack of privacy on social networking sites. It is true that the government lack actions or policies in protecting the privacy of the people using social media. There are digital crimes, which the law makers fail to take action over. However, people also lack of awareness or public attention about the privacy issues on social networking. People do not know that what they include on social networking sites could be used against them or could be used by other people. According to Andrew Lam from The New America Media, “When full-body scanners were introduced at the American airports three years ago, there was a brief public outcry”. They argue that their personal space could be invaded. It means that when people are aware that their personal space could be invaded, they try to argue with the policy or with the rules. Since they know the consequences and the implications of the full-body scanners, they try to fight the system.
However, when there is an issue about privacy loss in the social media, most people do not care. One possible reason for this is that people are not fully aware of the consequences and the implications of the privacy loss in the social media. Unlike the policy of full-body scanners, people could not argue with the privacy policies in the social networking sites since they did not know about the possible consequences of their actions or what they put in the social media. Therefore, law makers do not take actions about the lack of privacy on social media due to the lack of public attention against the issue.
Social networking is a very powerful aspect of the modern technology and it could revolutionize how people have social interactions. Many people fail to understand its power, but that does not mean that social networks and law makers are responsible for social networking sites privacy issues. People will have the power to change how technology is used. The development of the technology is always dependent on social changes. If people wants to have more privacy in their lives, then the developers of the technology will provide the demand of the people. The issue of privacy loss in the social networking sites is a responsibility of the users and we are all to blame. Overall, people should decrease their time socializing on social media sites if they want to have more personal privacy. In short, people should always be careful in what they are doing or including on social media.

Works cited

Lam, Andrew. “Privacy Is Lost And We Are All to Blame”. The New America Media. Web. 01 Jul. 2013.
Manjoo, Farhad. “It’s Not All Facebook’s Fault”. Web. 30 Nov. 2011.
Thompson, Nicolas. “Bigger Brother: The Exponential Law Of Privacy Loss”. The New Yorker. Web. 05 Dec. 2011.