If you ask a friend, family member, or colleague if they have a social network website of any kind such as Facebook or Myspace, and their response is no, then obviously that person is telling a little white lie. Nowadays everyone depends on an online social network website for just about any situation. Since the Internet is being used a lot, different websites are expecting consumers to provide plenty of information about themselves including a photo for identification purposes. What people may or may not be aware of are the privacy issues that people are having that are leading to identity theft. Before social networks were discovered, it was impossible to find out details about a person. In today’s world, all you need is someone to provide you with a name or even a picture and the rest is history. No matter how you apply your privacy settings, I’m pretty sure that it’s still easy for someone to look up and view a persons information.
Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg said “people have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people,” but is that really true? Is he really speaking on behalf of everyone around the world? I’m not comfortable having my information exposed everywhere. I noticed that I have to keep up with my privacy settings on Facebook in order to keep my pictures and information safe, so that I’m the only person who could see it other than my friends that I trust. The problem is that not everyone has the time to continually update their privacy settings. It should be a onetime deal. I get nervous every time I go on a website that asks me to provide more information than I actually want to give. I’m also always questioning if others could see my information even though I have my privacy settings set on high, if that’s even good enough.There are intelligent individuals out there such as hackers that have no mercy and will find a way to tamper with a persons information.
The question is, is the information that you provide online really safe and being protected from others? Or are people confiding too much on the little lock on the side of the website and web browser? That is the question.
Sources:
http://www.crn.com/news/security/222300279/facebooks-zuckerberg-face-it-no-one-wants-online-privacy-anymore.htm
www.facebook.com
HI Melissa,
ReplyDeleteI just read your blog and the sentence about Mark Zuckerberg and how he said “people have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people,” has been stuck in my mind. So I did a little research about this statement and to my surprise I was more upset with my findings. The founder of Facebook basically believes that privacy is “no longer a social norm” based on an article by Bobbie Johnson and several other articles I read. It is possible that Zuckerberg believes that people are sharing more because of how he views his website but people are sharing more with FRIENDS and FAMILY. That is the difference. Most people don’t just share their lives with strangers, they share their personal information with people they truly trust. So I have to disagree with Zuckerbergs statement because I strongly believe that people still care a lot about their privacy. Unfortunately most people are unaware that most of their privacy is being stripped away and the ones that have noticed don’t know how to fix the problem.
Melissa I would have to disagree with you in regard to everyone having a social networking site. There are people such as people with high security clearance that do not have facebook accounts because of the security risks such as being put in the position of blackmail or enemies using it as a source of gathering information. Now are we at the same kind of risks as them? Not necessarily but we still have to try and control the information that we put out there. If I lost touch with someone it is a great tool for reconnecting with people, but its also a way of having people you didn't get along with find you.
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