Data Privacy and Security in Social Networks

Abstract

Social networking creates relationships through the internet and it gains indivisible relation with human life nowadays. Social networking sites and applications handle a large volume of data. As more personal information flows in and out of social networks, data privacy and security in the social network become a topic of discussion and arguments. This chapter emphasizes data privacy and also differentiates privacy from security. Initial sections of the chapter explain privacy in its elementary form as a need and right of a human being under the perspective of anthropology and behavioral science. Personal data privacy, its current scenario, threats and its protection by law and policymaking by various governments around the world are discussed further. The chapter considers social networking beyond networking sites and applications, and hence a discussion on privacy threats for sensitive data which spread across fields such as health data, forensic, smart toys, image and video surveillance is also analyzed. Positives and negatives of social network’s underlying technologies, like machine learning, artificial intelligence, data sciences, the internet of things and blockchain are discussed in terms of data privacy. The personal data privacy measures imposed by law that need to be incorporated as the part of privacy policies of organizations or that need to be implemented with the support of data security mechanisms are discussed in the last part of the chapter.