Privacy

Privacy in new media is becoming a controversial issue. Although new media is making our lives more convenient, it has also created numerous potential problems, such as intellectual property, copyright, identity theft, fraud, and cyber-bullying issues. Social media platforms seem to provide great services to its users but when examining their Terms of Service, you might think twice in posting private photos, videos or messages.

According to Joe Nocera in a New York Times opinion page, "internet companies collect information about us, which they deploy in the service of advertisers" (Nocera, 2014). The concept is rather simple. Once these social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter go public, they need to find ways to stay financially sustainable and maximize profits for shareholder. In order to profit, these social media giants sell our personal information and any pictures they see profitable. Under their Terms of Service, they usually state along the lines of granting themselves a license-able and royalty free, worldwide right to use any content you post. Although they state that users own their intellectual properties, it is contradictory in that users must grant them a license-able right. This is one of the loopholes that must be addressed.

Another privacy concern when using social media is that businesses that are transparent are more prone to sophisticated social engineered hacks. An employer or employee may post something on social media but little did they know hackers can use that information to their advantage. Any type of information can provide these hackers with leads. Huge data breaches would be costly for companies to take preventative measures.

Cyber-bullying has become an issue affecting teenagers worldwide. Although the government and many organizations are running awareness campaigns, they are not effective in preventing bullies from posting nasty and threatening comments to their victims. Victims are bullied physically and mentally, from school to a screen in their home. Social media poses many privacy issue to young teenagers when they post user content online. Bullies may steal personal photos of victims and post them online anonymously to ruin their reputation.

Information technology may have made our lives more convenient in many ways, but many of the problems it poses are often ignored, or very little is done about it. Information technology is only at the early stages of development and as we progress, we should think about potential future risks and how to solve current problems, rather than allowing them to occur.