How Social Media Exposing Us - Essay Example

Module Creative Writing: How Social Media Exposing Us The Internet is a wonderful instrument for purposes of mass communication,but it comes with a number of disadvantages one being the lack of privacy. The Internet has transformed into a control grid in which privacy rights are no longer highly regarded. There are systems that virtually record or monitor everything that is done on the Internet. In the recent years, internet surveillance has grown to be a necessity for different reasons. When people freely post a lot of personal information about themselves on social media websites like Twitter and Facebook, they forget that this information cane be accessed by strangers.

Reasons Why Nothing on the Internet Can be Considered as Being Private: The terrorist attacks that took place in the United States more than a decade ago mean that governments all over the world now feel that they have to monitor social media sites with the aim of uncovering potential terrorist plots. In the United States, the Federal Government is now able to retain monitor the internet activity of complete strangers even if they show no signs of having connections with terrorist organizations.

Potential employers also usually request job applicants for passwords into their social media sites so as to get a better understanding of the character of the person they are hiring. In the past, they would simply look at the social media profiles; but today, they wish to get even more information on prospective employees. The job applicants are usually forced to comply with this request due to their need, but it is obviously an infringement of a basic human right. One of the reasons why some people support law enforcement agencies monitoring internet activity is because of the evolvement of criminals who use the internet to lure their victims.

Paedophiles have become particularly daring in their attempts to attract the attention of children. Few people would argue will police officers who regularly monitor the internet activities of suspected paedophiles. However, there are a few past cases where police action has gone too far in seeking to prosecute the people that are deemed as criminals. In the recent past, ther was a case where a parent shared his views on disciplining his errant teenager. He received a visit from child protection services after his video was posted on the internet (Solove, 39).

This is an example of internet monitoring taken too far. It is not just national organizations that regularly monitor the internet. There are manyinternational organizations that feel that it is necessary to monitor the internet so as to keep tabs on potential suspects of any crimes. Known as “internet spying”, this trend is gaining more popularity. For instance, the professed “lawful access” Canadian legislation which was not so long ago tabled in the House of Commons requires cellphone companies as well as internet service providers to hand over basic consumer information like addresses, names, email addresses, phone numbers and ISP addresses to Canadian authorities when asked to, without the provision for a warrant.

In some developed nations like the United States, Internet service providers have also been authorized to monitor the internet activity of their clients in order to ensure that they are not downloading and copyright material. Advertisers are also guilty of monitoring the activities of strangers on the internet. There are more than a few ways through which advertisers can invade peoples’ social media privacy. These include: Data Scraping: This involves tracking users’s online activities and collecting personal information as well as conversations from job websites, social media, and online forums.

Generally, research organizations are the gatherers of such information, which they then sell to other firms. These firms, in turn, use the information to devise targeted advertisement campaigns for their goods.  Facebook Apps Leaking Personal Information: It is an established fact that certain Facebook apps are share information about their users with internet tracking and advertising companies without the users’ knowledge. Online Social Tracking: Buttons such as “+1”, “Like”, and “Tweet”, are also used by social media websites to track their users.

CONCLUSION The Internet has broken the control on mass communication that was previously the province of the elite. It has given normal individuals the capacity to communicate with others in an unprecedented fashion . A blog post or YouTube video posted today can instantly be viewed by millions of people in different geographical locations. Information is power, and the general population has been entrusted with an enormous amount of power by the internet. However, the Internet also gives people the chance to affect the world in a much more powerful way than was possible for previous generations.

Something that a person posts on the Internet today can completely transform the life of a person living at the other end of the world. Different national governments have started to recognize the power of the internet; and quite a number have taken the step to censor internet usage in their jurisdictions. Work Cited Solove, Daniel. The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet. Yale:Yale University Press, 2007. Print.