Although contradictory in its title, this post does bring to light something I have recently been thinking about: ‘How private can you be on social networks?‘ I have a wide variety of social media accounts and use a huge list of tools in order to perform my daily activities effectively and efficiently.
1. stuartjdavidson.com http://stuartjdavidson.com/is-social-privacy-possible/
Is Social Privacy Possible?
Although contradictory in its title, this post does bring to light something I have recently been thinking about: ‘ How
private can you be on social networks?‘ I have a wide variety of social media accounts and use a huge list of
tools in order to perform my daily activities effectively and efficiently. With it, comes an element of risk in allowing
so many entities to be able to access my personal information. Can anyone really uphold a certain level of privacy
when regularly engaging on many different social media platforms? Are people taking the appropriate measures to
make sure their private information remains secure?
Privacy and social networking are like chalk and cheese when you think about each in its element. Privacy is
predominantly when someone restricts access to particular personal information, such as their location or
age. Social networking on the other hand is in fact almost the opposite, letting people connect and engage
through means like providing particular information so that their profiles are searchable and connectable. So, can
you really have social privacy?
Well, it is possible to have social media accounts and talk exclusively to friends and family or to not provide any
personal information and hide behind an anonymous identity, in order to remain private and secluded. But could
you participate in discussions, engage with people and build relationships and not let contacts know anything
about you? I am not sure how long they would remain your contact if this were the case. There has to be some
middle ground, with users taking precautions yet allowing a level of openness.
Most social media platforms have some sort of privacy options, such as with LinkedIn, that you can set to allow
either everyone or only personal connections to view your profile. Both social media platforms and software tools
also usually have a box you can tick or leave blank, that states whether you would like to share your information
with third-party companies or software, for advertising or promotional use. The problem with many tools, especially
ones involving Twitter or Facebook, is that in order to use them you have to allow them access to your profile.
Even with restricted access, this is a little worrying. Stack up ten or twenty different software tools and platforms
and it is almost impossible to track who hold what information about you.
Security of user information should be of utmost importance to social networking sites, yet incidents have still