Social Media: Privacy

Anyone has the right to say whatever they want, all too often the strongest advocates of that right forget that anyone also has the right to public information. Gmail and Facebook gladly turn the information provided from their users into targeted marketing opportunities whether we know it or not. Even lesser known is the ability for users to customize privacy settings on their favorite social networking sites. No program will forcefully subject its users to submit all of their information, especially in terms of using that information for financial gains.

An important factor in information distribution and second party use is the network's ability to manipulate information only goes as far as what is PUBLICLY posted online. The same could be said for pictures or statuses on social networking sites. There is a 0 percent chance of someone sharing private information if it is never publicly posted. Just a little food for thought.

This site explains it a little better than I can : http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2065928/Social-Media-The-Privacy-and-Security-Repercussions

On a different note, ethical matters in social media are of equal importance. Four of the most prevalent problems can be more fully understood in this article: http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/technology/article/social-media-ethics-4-common-dilemmas-ben-parr

The topic of misrepresentation really intrigued me. Almost everywhere you look on the web scams and misrepresented information is posted in hopes to fool or mislead the general public. This problem is not new by any means as scams have been around for ages, but more recently the older and more gullible generation are being taken advantage of with their limited computer skills. Free does not mean free, especially on the world wide web. If something seems too good to be true (giveaways, cruises, large sums of money, etc) it probably is.