Essay On Social Media Privacy

855 Words4 Pages

Social media is here to stay, and with each passing day, it plays a greater role in our lives. That’s why privacy on social media has never been more important. The way you use Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the other social networks can have major impacts on your life, good or bad.
With a little bit of knowledge and a small dose of caution, however, you can enjoy all the benefits of social media with few of the risks. Here are some privacy concerns you should watch out for.
1. Account hacking and impersonation
Increasingly, spammers, hackers and other online criminals are targeting social networks. A compromised social media account makes for an appealing target: if they can get into your Facebook or Twitter account, they can impersonate you.
Why are they interested in your social media …show more content…

Already, Facebook has faced criticism over its ad targeting engine, which in some cases was illegally discriminating against certain types of people.
Facebook and other social media companies are trying to adapt, but there are conflicting interests between serving their paying advertising customers and their social media users. Balancing the needs of both is difficult to do, even when there isn’t a financial incentive in place. As a result, it is likely that we will continue to see increased attempts at information gathering and privacy intrusions for the purposes of targeted marketing.
5. The privacy downside of location-based services
Most of today’s social media users don’t access the services on a traditional computer, they do it on their smartphones. As social media continues to take advantage of mobile devices and location-based services, the potential for privacy and security threats increases. In fact, most people’s smartphones automatically collect location data continuously, and social media apps are some of the heaviest users of this

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