Is there Such A Thing As Privacy in Social Media?

One of the key issues of social media is the growing debate about privacy.  The more we interact on social media, the more information we relinquish and the more we diminish our privacy.  As social media usage continues to develop this debate becomes increasingly intense.

Although, a lot of the blame is placed at the feet of social media companies, this is actually a user driven collapse.  In turn this exposes individuals to a number of risks/issues including:

• identify theft
• data storage
• hacking or harvesting of personal information
• bullying/stalking and more

Social media sites actively encourage disclosure of information and in most cases information is given up easily.  Birthdays, employment information, friends, photos and slowly a picture of your life is accessible online.  This information stays permanently online on what is arguably a ‘public space’.  Content can be searched becoming accessible to any number of people not originally intended to see the information.

When individuals keenly give up personal information it shifts the boundaries in terms of what is acceptable content to be considered private.  If you as a ‘user’ post personal information should this be considered ‘private’ or ‘public’ information?  It is an interesting question which is one of many in the social media privacy debate.  There is no doubt the line between what is considered personal information in the context of privacy and social media is being blurred.

If people are concerned about their information, the only safe way to keep it private is to not put it online.  These days this is more challenging that it seems!  The most proactive approach moving forward is encouraging a culture of self-responsibility as well as education where users are aware that the more information they share the less privacy they have.

As our privacy continues to be challenged in the context of social media is this something individuals are concerned about?  Or are our expectations of privacy changing?

Would love to hear your thoughts…

Thanks for reading!

Feel free to ‘tweet’ or ‘repost’ this article or leave your comments….

Tags: social Media • Social Media Privacy