Ethical Dilemmas on Data Privacy and Security for Social Media’s Users

Abstract

In the era of digital transformation, social media is the rising revolution in Journalism & Mass Communication Industry. In 21st century, social media like Facebook, You Tube, Twitter and Instagram are the most popular platforms among the people of all generations. While using these applications, security and privacy are the prime concerns that have to be considered. There are so many privacy and security issues or challenges for Social Media’s users. Facebook is not really as private as it claims. In fact, nothing is private on internet. Facebook has some issues for users’ data privacy and security. First issue is that not all photos are private even if you set your profile to be private. Some of your pictures will still appear because individual picture is set to public. Another Issue is that your comments are searchable but many users don’t think that their comments on status and posts can be search but that is wrong because comments are acutely searchable and can appear in Google searches. Profile will appear if you search your name on Google and if you have account on Facebook. Hidden post can still appear even if you hide them from your own timeline. In the recent years, the explosive growth of information technology and internet use to obtain information, goods and services have fueled and there is a debate and controversy about the potential threats to privacy. Personal identifiable information can be used in the numbers of ways that were never imagine or sanctioned by the person who used the social media. 93 % of commercial social media collect at least one of the personal identifications. Less than 10% of social media encompass all five principles: Notice, Choice, Access, Security and Enforcement. One third of sites post no privacy policy. Only a third of surveyed sites guaranteed not to send visitors’ information to third parties. There is no such thing as “delete” anymore –everything lives online forever. The primary business model for most successful online corporations is the mass collection and memorization of your personal data. All the major social networks’ default setting is public. There are many ethical dilemmas arising for the social media’s users like hacking into computersusing pictures without consent and stealing ideas etc. We now have to think about the consequences of our actions in a whole new way. This research paper focuses on ethical challenges or dilemmas for data privacy and security arising with social media.