Assessment – Essay (Due: 18 October 2010)
By Erin Oxnam
Why is privacy such a contentious issue for Internet users? Discuss with reference to at least ONE social network service (or other web2.0 service).
Privacy on the Web seems nonexistent these days but have users given up their rights to privacy or has it been taken from them? Privacy is commonly defined as “freedom from attention of others” (Word definition) and although many Internet users seek online privacy, their personal information is plastered all over the Internet, the majority of the time without their consent. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow people who the user may or may not know to have access to their personal information as well as letting them know the innermost details of their everyday lives.
Facebook is the most used website on the Internet and although there is a list of terms and conditions of service that one must agree to when registering, it is not often that people read those when they sign up before agreeing to the terms of use. Facebook is a website that stores and sells information on their members to groups such as marketers and other companies for their use and research.
There is a website known as InsideFacebook.com that has investigated privacy issues regarding Facebook. They determined that Facebook has pushed its users to allow personal information to be public over the last few years (sometimes without the user knowing). Facebook has stated that it believes this will allow them to offer the information to marketers and developers to benefit the user but some users, privacy groups and politicians have spoken out against this through vocal protests, lawsuits and recently, official investigations. In early January, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told a live audience that the world has changed and that it’s become more public and less private. Whilst this seems like a justification for the disloyalty to Facebook’s users, his statement does have some validity. Billions of people around the world use the Internet and have online profiles on various websites including Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blogspot, Tumblr, Youtube and even places such as Chat Roulette where users are able to make contact with people around the globe using their web cam and microphone.
Some personal information that can be exploited by Facebook is a user’s musical and reading preferences, employment information, past and present schooling and education as well as any other information that makes up your profile. All of this information must be public and linked to public pages for each of those bits of information; otherwise you don’t get them at all. There is no choice for users to choose which of their preferences are able to be public or private. What some teenagers might not realise is that when applying to University or College and you give them your details including an email address, admissions offices can use email addresses to find information about them.
A whole other issue for security and privacy issues is status updates. Everybody writes status updates talking about their day and other such things without knowing who can access their information or how it can affect them in real life. The website Wired.com wrote an alarming article about default security settings for status updates.
Now, say you write a public update, saying, “My boss had a crazy great idea for a new product!” Now, you might not know it, but there is a Facebook page for “My Crazy Boss” and because your post had all the right words, your post now shows up on that page. Include the words “FBI” or “CIA,” and you show up on the FBI or CIA page.
Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative | Epicenter | Wired.com
Another concern for users of social networking sites is identity theft. With all the information that is available to the public including full names, family information, suburbs where people live, interests as well as personal pictures, it has made identity theft just that much easier. Many people have had their YouTube videos stolen and posted onto another account that claims the videos as their own, which is just a small problem amongst the larger privacy issue. Having all of this personal information available to the public has also made it easier for predators and stalkers to get closer to their victim and know more about them as they can gather information about their family and workplace.
Despite the negative things that were said earlier about the social networking site Facebook, they do offer the following privacy options that their users should be aware of: friend lists (used to send out messages to certain groups of people and not others), removal from search results (both on Google and Facebook), avoid photo/video tagging, protect your photo albums and finally, prevent stories from showing up in your feed (such as relationship statuses).
The research and investigation done for the purpose of this essay to answer the earlier question, ‘have users given up their rights to privacy or has it been taken from them?’ leads towards privacy has been taken away from users, with their consent. Despite the privacy groups and politicians who disagree with the way sites such as Facebook exploit their users and sell their information, the users cannot be treated as victims. There are steps that Internet users can put into place to ensure their privacy is protected which include; refusing to use social networking sites such as Facebook, ensuring that they read the terms and conditions before agreeing to joining a site, checking their privacy settings before posting or using a site, be conscious of information that is revealed online, by reading books on internet privacy such as Internet Privacy for Dummies and by being aware of any new technologies that can harm you or your computer.
References, Research & Resources
Web:
"Facebook | Privacy Guide", Date Accessed: 3 October 2010,
http://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.php
“Analysis: Some Facebook Privacy Issues Are Real, Some Are Not””, Date Accessed: 17 October 2010, http://www.insidefacebook.com/2010/05/11/analysis-some-facebook-privacy-issues-are-real-some-are-not/
“Facebook’s Gone Rogue; It’s Time for an Open Alternative | Epicenter | Wired.com”, Date Accessed: 16 October 2010,
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/05/facebook-rogue/
“Protecting your privacy on the Internet”, Date Accessed: 14 October 2010, http://www.privacy.gov.au/topics/technologies/privacy
"Wiretapping the Internet | Julian Sanchez | Cato Institute: Commentary", Date Accessed: 5 October 2010,
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=12196
Video:
Living Online: Privacy and Security Issues in a Digital Age | American Constitution Society", Date Accessed: 5 October 2010,
http://www.acslaw.org/node/14449
Books:
"Identity Crisis: How Identification Is Overused and Misunderstood", by Jim Harper (May 2006).
"Internet Privacy for Dummies" by John R. Levine, Ray Everett-Church, Gregg Stebben, and David Lawrence (2002)
"Privacy Lost: How Technology Is Endangering Your Privacy" by David H. Holtzman (2006)
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