The Issues of Identity Privacy on Social Media - Research Paper Example

Social Networking Introduction Social networking has created a huge impact on the lives of human beings. Thefast evolving nature of social networking has changed the way of connecting with people and interacting between each other. It has created a platform for people to share their information and create their own identity. Recent survey reveals that more that 90 percent of people are some way or another connected in the social networking sites. Social networking can be in the form of website or mobile application. It has revolutionized the user’s experience. The evolution of social networking has effectively changed the relationship of human dynamics which has taken in to new perspective. the introduction of social networking has changed internet technology to inclusive Internet users can come together in social media sites and sharing their hobbies, views, memories and religion. Many social networking sites require minimum efforts and security to join and almost every site are free. High level of personal information that is displayed in the social networking sites can result in identity theft. There is hardly any person who does not exercise any forms of social networking. The advancement of social networking changed the way of communication of people from silent spectator to effective spectator. This research paper will discuss about the issues of identity privacy on social media sites. Analysis The creation of popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Instagram has created a controversial issue which is identity privacy of individual. Some of the identity privacy issues are identity theft, data mining and stalking. Social media sites such as Facebook and twitter has provided a perfect platform for individuals to share their memories and views. Social networking sites have becomes inevitable part of every people by providing maximum global reach. The destination of global reach of people created the domination of social networking. It has brought power back to the people hands by the virtue of interaction of people with other individual can help to create social influence. The astronomical amount of information that is being shared in social media sites created privacy and security issues. Social networking has encouraged people to be more open to share their intimate details (Gershon 19). But this information which are being posted can cause privacy issue like people might stole be aware of this information due to open nature of social networking sites. Social networking site such as Facebook has attracted the attention of millions of users all over the world. Survey reveals that 200 million users are active on Facebook. Study reveals that people are more tend to share as much information as possible rather than hiding behind the layers. The revelation of information updated on online connections can create different effect on personal life of an individual. The amount of information that are being updated every can create flaw and it helps someone to exploit the flaws which leads to identity privacy issue. Some avenues that help to gain access of the private information are features of participation of users such as photos, messages and platform application. “Researchers in the field of this subject found out that the third party game application can give the power to the developers to attain the access of all personal information such as address, interests and personal pictures of an individual” (Turkle 23). Some of the third part application creates devastating hole which allows for easy theft. The problems of reducing the privacy issue can be attained successfully if people are more aware and use careful approach to share information or pictures. The privacy control of social media site around is in the hand of the user (Turkle 28). It depends on the user to share and disclose information as per as their choice. The level of risk is determined by the content of information that is shared by user. Sometime users underestimate the issues that can occur. The negative impact on user depends upon the way people present themselves in the social media sites. Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc., has become interwoven in to the life of daily user as it has helped people to communicate between each other easily. Some common social networking sites are Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and VKuontakte. Thousands of millions of people are now active on social media sites. Facebook alone has more than 1.15 active users monthly. Users also use mobile Facebook application which is more than 819 million users. Every user on Facebook has an average 137 friends and share more than 89 contents every month. These social networking sites have many drawbacks and users are unaware of the security risks. Some security issues are malware, privacy issue, identity theft, fake profiles and sexual harassment. “According to several reports, social media users used to expose their details quite easily” (Waters and Lester 246). Information and details must be about relationship or posting photos or phone number or personal address. The information shared by users can be harmful and malicious for users. 77.3% of users in United States are active on internet via social networking sites or other sites. 82.3% or users in United Kingdom are active on internet daily. More than 90% of adult populations are some way or another connected to online social networks. Social media application giant, WhatsApp has increased the craze of social networks. More than 450 million users are active on WhatsApp and are growing daily (Tannen and Trester 65). Recent outrage of WhatsApp by the Acquisition of Facebook has created havoc in the minds of users. Millions of people share their personal photos and keep their profile photo can create identity privacy issue. Hackers and users can save the photos and misuse it. In May 2011, more than 53.5 billion minutes are being spent on Facebook. The Fox news survey reveals the drastic change of percentage of teenager usage of social networking sites over the years. Users aged between 18 to 29 uses social networking sites for about 88 %. “The ever growing users of online social networking are enormous. Some recent statistics states that, more than 60 percentages of children who uses internet daily are aged 9 to 16”. 58% of children uses social networking sites with their personal profile are aged 9 to 16. Latest European study suggests that, more than 15% of users set their profile public by sharing their number and personal address. 30% of children using social networking sites are connected with friend whom they have never met. Another European study states that more than 6% of users are receiving malicious messages. 9% of the user data proved on online networking profiles is being misused. The findings clearly suggest that the use of social media sites effectively can harm both teenagers and children which can lead to expose of personal information and identity privacy issue. Discussion The increase in number of users on social networking sites has exposed the vulnerability of malicious security and privacy threats. The progressive use of social networks has been embedded in to day to day activity of individuals. The way of connection and interaction between people has gone in to different level form the evolution of social networks. People are more addicted towards social networking sites because benefits are experiential and help users to create avenue to share information via internet. Intimate details are being posted on social networking sites as it created more public and open atmosphere to show their views. But this can eventually be downfall and create several privacy and identity issues. Some of people are reserved as they fear to reveal personal details. But some people are loud and do not bother about their privacy (Gershon 109). The privacy issue occurs due to the level of identifiable and visibility of content that are being displayed and uploaded on social networking sites. The online social networking sites does not disclose user’s personal details until it is been openly shared by the user. Identity theft is one of the security issue faced by users. Identity of every individual is what which makes different from others. Social networking sites provide opportunities to people to open themselves to public. People signup to the social networking site provides sense of identity. It is up to the people to present themselves. Example when people signup in Facebook, then it provides opportunity to create salient aspects of individual to show other people to interpret about the individual and profile. The information that are been provided on the user’s profile cannot proof their original identity. Friends of the individual would perceive the identity but user’s identity between offline and online is different (Al-Deen and Hendricks 38). The risk of account to be hacked or fake created when people get information such as address, phone number, birth date and hometown. This information provided by online users on social networking sites used for stalking and creating fake profiles. The mimic of human behavior in social networking sites is the fake profile. This privacy illegal issue initiates to harvest personal data of the user. This is done to infiltrate other Facebook profile and add as many friends as possible to exploit the details of the original user. It sometimes becomes difficult to find out the validity of the information declared by the users. Some people cannot be fooled by the declared identity due to their experience of talking with the people and observing the behavior. It becomes easier for stalker if address and high school name is provided by the original user. Teens are concerned about the invasion of privacy which is just opposite to adults who are much more concerned about invasion. Social networking sites have implemented many privacy settings and authentication techniques that enable to protect user’s identity. Configuration of privacy setting enables used to lock their important or private memories or pictures from other users. Other safety features such as login notification and secure of browser can help to reduce the issue of stalking. Pictures, information, details and other personal information of user can be blocked by the user and permit them to allow friends they want to view the pictures or private document. Many Facebook user uses default privacy setting which provides advantages to the hackers and stalkers to steal their private information. “Users should be aware of the private setting which can help to expose private data to unknown strangers”. Another mechanism deployed by Facebook to protect the user’s privacy is internal protection mechanism. Internet protection mechanism provides defense against scams, fake profile and spammers. Facebook activated Facebook Immune System which helps to protect users account from malicious attacks and nullify privacy issue. This mechanism performs the write and read action of all online account users to check and clarify by adversarial learning system. Authentication mechanisms allow users to authenticate every time at the time of login to check user is real person or sociable. There is an option called report to report against the policy violation or abuses that caused harassment by some unknown user. “Several internet security solutions can also be implemented such as Kaspersky, Avira, AVG, Symantec and McAfee” (Turkle 53). This enables to nullify the issue of identity privacy by preventing malicious users, stalkers, hackers to expose privacy and identity of every user. Conclusion This can be concluded that the issues of identity privacy can be nullified by the implementation of configured privacy setting. Social networking sites have become daily need of every human being. Internet users spend most of the time on social networking sites than that of the other online sites. It has become hub for users to share their experiences by pursuing referrals or uploading memorable pictures. The implementation of social networking sites has created an empowerment on the hands of users to share their opinions and views in open public community. Nevertheless of the positive aspects of the social networks, it also has dark side with full of fraudsters, online hackers and stalkers. The thereat provided by these stalkers and hackers can jeopardize private identity of every individual. Several remedies implemented to allow users to reverse the negative issue of privacy identity and protect identity of the users. Works Cited Al-Deen, Hana, and John Hendricks. Social Media: Usage and Impact. London: Lexington Books, 2013. Print. This book has discussed about the use of social media network in daily life. Moreover, this book has revealed both negative and positive impact of these of social media network. Gershon, IIana. The Breakup 2.0: Disconnecting over New Media. New York: Cornell University Press, 2012. Print. This Book has discussed about the acceptance level of people regarding social media network as new media options. In addition to this, this book has discussed how people regards the privacy Issues use of social media network. Tanen, Deborah, and Anna Trester. Discourse 2.0: Language and New Media. New York: Georgetown Press, 2013. Print. Social media network can be termed as most innovative communication tools and it is the cause of technological advancement. Several business organizations and individuals used to adopt this communication aspect and concept i9n media science due to several advantages. Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. New York: Basic Books, 2012. Print. This book has described how social media network has emerged as modern Communication media for both individuals and business organizations. In addition to this, this book has pointed out several drawbacks of the use of social media network. Waters, John, and John Laster. The Everything Guide to Social Media. New York: Everything Books, 2010. Print. This book has discussed about the emergence of social media in this modern era of Technological advancement. In addition to this, this book has discussed about how to overcome privacy issues related to the use of social media network. Read More