How is the privacy different between different social media sites such Facebook and twitter? How is change in last several years?

Introduction

Social networks are mainly based on helping in the interactions between or among people with the same motives. Over the last few years, the world has experienced a massive increase in the number of people using these sites both for commercial and recreational purposes. Nevertheless, there are privacy concerns for every social network, and hence it is advisable to understand and agree to the terms and conditions before joining these sites. It is worth noting that some of the information posted on these sites is not meant for public use and hence the concept of privacy becomes increasingly critical. Privacy protects data according to the personal concern of each. It should be a prerogative of the individual to decide whether or not what they post is for public or private consumption. However, this is not always the case and sometimes private information gets into the wrong hands resulting in information leak. This chapter will look at several reasons that undermine privacy in the social networks and the potential dangers related to the vice.

Discussion

Reasons for privacy leak

There are a variety of reasons why people’s privacy leak on social media, some are due to individual negligence while other are due to the inefficiency of the enough privacy protection by the network. Twitter and Facebook offer levels in their privacy such that you may post a picture on Facebook and decide it to be only seen by your friends; you might post something on Twitter and restrict the audience to only your followers (Thinking Ahead – Essays On Big Data, Digital Revolution, And Participatory Market Society). Facebook has much personal information such as birthday, phone number, hobbies; films watched and most relationship status unlike Twitter which has only basic details for the account hence making Facebook prone to personal information leakage

Sometimes people think that the social networks are responsible for their privacy protection yet the social media platform might be accessed by a third party hence making their information leak. Facebook does not protect anyone from locating someone, but an individual can change his/her privacy settings so that his/her data cannot be seen, such assumptions made by individuals results to data leakage.

Although the social network site and the users may be vigilant on the privacy of information, it is also paramount to understand that there is also a great risk from hackers. The increased technological advances in the recent years have made it impossible to guarantee total safety on all the information available on these sites. It is interesting to point out that most of the online information is available on various databases hence putting the users at the risk of hackers (Trottier). Data theft by these cyber criminals has been another source of concern for social network s privacy. The hackers can post unwanted information or change users security settings thus compromising their security status.

Potential dangers

Information provided by individuals is so much hence a third party can use your identity to commit crimes on social networks. Phone number disclosure in Facebook can be used by the third party to perform illegal activities, linking your mobile number with twitter sometimes also possess a challenge. Identity theft has been on the rise in the recent years, and much has been attributed to the availability of a lot of information on the social media sites. For example, there are reported cases of how pictures, phone numbers and social security numbers have been used to facilitate identity theft. Celebrities claim that their twitter accounts have been hacked and used to post evil whereas there have been instances of personification in Face book. It is, therefore, advisable to ensure that one provides as little information as possible on these sites to avoid such occurrences.

Another danger associated with social network sites privacy is increased cases of sexual exploitation. Sex predators have taken advantage of the available loopholes to advance their greedy actions. For example, Facebook lacks well qualified age management hence young teenagers are molested by the sexual predators who might have befriended them, twitter has less sexual predation (Thinking Ahead – Essays On Big Data, Digital Revolution, And Participatory Market Society). Meeting strangers is especially done through Facebook and hence some young youths especially girls have been molested. High content of personal information and ability to hide behind a pseudo-identity in these sites have been cited as possible reason why sex predators have succeeded in this vice.

Stalking is another danger arising from privacy shortcomings in the social networks. Stalking of people trends and activities is more on Facebook than Twitter hence this reveals the person’s privacy and way of life

There have been noticeable differences in Facebook and Twitter over the past years; Facebook is based on continuous conversations unlike Twitter that goes for the trending issues for just a shorter time hence this exposes Facebook to privacy leak, unlike Twitter that information is just used for a short while.

Twitter is not so much into friendship unlike Facebook, it only allows people converse and follow on relevant information hence this makes Twitter more secure such that the third party cannot know you friends and family

The posts at Facebook is timeless hence less focused and personal matters are expressed their Unlike Twitter where information needed is current and much important and not personal hence this makes Twitter a safer network.There has been a change in privacy on Facebook and Twitter in 2012 (Thinking Ahead – Essays On Big Data, Digital Revolution, And Participatory Market Society). Twitter has no such mail setting unlike Facebook hence making personal data on Facebook leak easily, Facebook provided their own user Id with the domain @facebook.com address making it easy for a third party to obtain information about a person.

Success to a business requires the exposure to both Facebook and Twitter hence maintaining the customers and audience on the Facebook and Twitter pages. Sharing the sites and posting the pictures of commodities results in the success of companies (Trottier). In 2015 twitter showed search results for all tweets unlike the past where is showed tweets for only a week hence privacy of data is more easy, Facebook has somehow become private such that you can unfollow someone and block him/her so that your data cannot be accessed easily by the person, Facebooks also has allowed people report on false instances making Facebook more secure because illegal activities are reported.

Conclusion

In conclusion, social networks have directly responded to their privacy issues and are always trying to improve the security standard so that hacking to one’s Facebook or Twitter account is nearly impossible. People are also educated on the passwords created and the information to be kept public to avoid third party assessment. Although, the social networking sites are doing all they can to enhance privacy, it is also prudent for the users to be proactive and take all the necessary measures to ensure their privacy settings remains intact. Also, people should ensure they reserve essential information such as social security number to avoid instances of identity theft.

WORKS CITED

Thinking Ahead – Essays On Big Data, Digital Revolution, And Participatory Market Society. 1st ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2015. Print.

Trottier, Daniel. Social Media As Surveillance: Rethinking Visibility In A Converging World. 1st ed. Ashgate Publishing Group, 2012. Print.

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