One of the major problems that has come up with the spreading popularity of microblogs is the issue of privacy. Because people have the power to post sensitive information for all to see (unless he or she has made his or her profile private), many people have encountered problems for doing so - problems like having their identity stolen, for example.
With the burst in use of microblogs, blogs, and social networking sites, people are putting more information out there for users to access. With this available information comes the problem of the wrong people coming across that information and taking it and using it to steal people's identities. Information like birth date, sex, hometown, occupation, profile pictures, and etc allow identity thieves to gather an arsenal of information about a person, and in some cases, the damages done by identity theft can be irreparable.
Social Networking sites along with other similar kinds of websites have responded to this problem by letting users have the choice of what information they can and cannot share, and they have also allowed the option for people to make their profiles private. However, even with this, many people still share information and allow it to be public. With knowing the risks about the Internet, why do you think people still put sensitive information out there for all to see?
Another problem that has come up not only with microblogs, but the Internet in general, is people sharing sensitive information that was not intended for others to see . In fact, Twitter was involved in a case where their personal company documents were hacked and shared on the Internet for all to see. Similarly, law enforcement and popular social networking websites have had to crack down on bullying over the Internet because it has led some children to take there own lives. The only way that many popular SNSs have been able to combat both of these problems is by showing warning statements that warn users against: sharing information and pictures that are not that user's own, and sharing or posting information that could potentially defame another individual.
Do you think there are any ways that these problems can be completely stopped? Or are these problems simply unavoidable?
Uses of Internet Banking
14 years ago
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I think why people feel compeled to share so much information about themselves on the internet is because SNSs ask a lot of personal questions- but these are questions that the user, a lot of times, does not necessarily have to share. The fact that SNSs even provide users a place to put their home adress, personal email, and mobile phone number might be the reason why uneducated users feel comfortable providing personal information (because they might not necessarily know that they don't have to do so).
ReplyDeleteI think a solution to this would be for SNSs and other similar sites to not be able to provide a space that lets users provide personal information like home address and etc.. I think this would be a good safeguard for, not only uneducated users like teenagers but also for experienced users who do not mind giving that information out.
Personal information should not be allowed to be shared because there is a huge risk of having that information being used the wrong way (like having ones identity stolen) or in a way that the user did not necessarily want it to be used (like being sold to telemarketers).
As far as the bullying and sharing of private information goes, I think SNSs are doing all they can do for right now. Law enforcement is also dfoing all they can to stop this too, and I'm glad they've actually been cracking down on these issues.