A lot of people these days are always connected through a Bluetooth, on Facebook, or on Twitter, keeping up with loved ones and acquaintances. Sites such as this one is constantly requesting more personal information be revealed which can, ultimately serve as a threat to privacy. Of course, the Facebook website itself is not deliberately intending to harm anyone by asking for such information. It simply must ask certain things from people to offer the extended social networking services it does so well.
Whether or not this is in the best interest of individuals has been highly debated in the last several years. People against this method want additional security measures, but people who own the websites think the personal info is vital to keeping the users satisfied with relevant advertisements.
One thing that many people are unaware of is that many sites also use IP tracking which means they can track not only your exact location, but who you are online with, and what you are saying. One of these sites is http://ip-searching.info/41/index.htm, but there are many others that serve the same purpose.
Because legal filings are occurring every day, ways to keep personal rights safe when users are online, and at the same time, not interfere with the users’ rights to decide how much they want to share with these websites have not yet been established. Facebook has been particularly targeted in this war due to the methods they use to protect users’ privacy.
Somehow, people STILL find ways around even “privacy blocked” accounts within the Facebook site, forcing web designers to continually change and reformat the site. Now, Facebook (and many other similar sites) are struggling to keep up with the high demands of their loyal patrons, all while still trying to maintain strict new requirements from the National Trade Commission.
Facebook, with more than FIVE HUNDRED MILLION people logging on every month, is clearly one of the most popular social networking sites in the world. As such, many changes proposed by the company to keep up not only with the volume, but ever-changing legal mandates, has resulted in site problems which were unanticipated. Things like an unclear interface and news feed tied personal information into public forums that led to much criticism. What many fail to understand is that once personal information is placed on the Internet, it is vulnerable to accessibility.
One example was the Beacon Advertising System which was designed to track information of users in all their web searches. Then, people on a distribution list would get an email saying something to the effect, “Check out Johny’s favorite site”. A URL would then take you DIRECTLY to the same site that YOU visited! Many Facebook users felt that this was an invasion of privacy as they didn’t necessarily want their friends knowing what sites they had been on. Luckily, Facebook discontinued this practice; however they suffered greatly because of it.
Now, website like Facebook, that deal so primarily with an individual’s sensitive material, are far more aware of privacy concerns, doing their best to keep people safe. When it’s all said and done, though, it is actually the INDIVIDUAL USER that is in control of your own personal info. Because of how popular social network websites have become, the Internet must develop methods of dealing with evolving issues that inevitably arise. Until then, keep in mind that after personal information is entered anywhere on the Internet, it could be exposed to anyone, anywhere, at any time. As such, users must think twice before divulging any information at all.