Privacy
One of the biggest issues with new media and social media is privacy. Now what is privacy in this context? When speaking about privacy in relation to technology, we are specifically discussing information privacy which deals with the protection of information about individuals (anything that can identify you). If you ask people if they feel that their privacy is being thoroughly protected by the websites and apps they use, most people will say no. And why is that? People are naturally distrustful of large corporations and technology, but also many of us have seen many data breaches and hacking disasters in the last decades. Since the age of the internet has began, there have always been risks in being online, whether you choose to give out your personal information or not. There's always someone or something tracking your internet history, there's always a site out there that has some, if not all, of your personal information, there is always something.
A large perpetrator of breaching user privacy is Facebook; they have been known to track users' internet history to show people more targeted ads, that will in turn lead to more revenue for them. We all know about this issue and most are even angry about it, but most of us still have Facebook accounts that we use pretty regularly. Why is that? Because everyone is concerned with their privacy in theory but no one truly takes the time to understand how to protect it or look through the sites and apps they use to see how exactly is the best way to protect themselves. No one actually believes their information is really at risk of going to "bad guys" who may use it for their own benefit.
A large perpetrator of breaching user privacy is Facebook; they have been known to track users' internet history to show people more targeted ads, that will in turn lead to more revenue for them. We all know about this issue and most are even angry about it, but most of us still have Facebook accounts that we use pretty regularly. Why is that? Because everyone is concerned with their privacy in theory but no one truly takes the time to understand how to protect it or look through the sites and apps they use to see how exactly is the best way to protect themselves. No one actually believes their information is really at risk of going to "bad guys" who may use it for their own benefit.
Many people definitely feel as if they are not protected online. A lot of our personal information are constantly being stalked. I also spoke about Facebook in my post. They are risking a lot of people's privacy just so they can make a profit out of us.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. We all seem to have a problem with it, but no one seems to take any actions. I know many paranoid people put a sticker on their laptop camera and don't allow cookies in their browsers, but what other actions can we take?