Social Media, Ethics and the Privacy Paradox - Nadine Barrett - Maitland and Jenice Lynch

 

The use of social media is growing at a rapid pace and the twenty first century could be described as the 'boom' period for social networking.  According to the reports provided by smart insights, there were over 3.484 billion social media users and was growing by 9% annually.  'Social Media, Ethics and the Privacy Paradox' is a chapter in the book 'Security and Privacy from a legal, Ethical and Technical Perspective'.  The chapter analyses the behaviour of social media users while sharing aspects of their private lives.  It also requires the users to critically assess the content they share and the values they uphold.

Nadine Barrett-Maitland and Jenice Lynch in their 'Social Media, Ethics and the Privacy Paradox', point out that the social media and the digital era have 'redefined' privacy.  Privacy is not the right to enjoy freedom from unauthorized intrusion but the right to control access to personal information.  The closed-circuit cameras (CCTV), Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geo Maps have continuous monitoring.  The various government agencies and the largest companies such as Face book, Microsoft and Amazon are collecting information and storing it in data bases for future use without the consent.  As sharing information is the primary way to participate in the social networking sites (SNSs), the participants, the social media users have to give their personal and private information.  Thus the social networks become the platform of choice for hackers and cyber criminals.  Protecting privacy in today's networked society is a great challenge.

Though social media has provided a platform for people to share their thoughts and issues and incidents happening in the society, it should be accepted by the law.  The content should not violate the rights of others and it should not promote fake news.  Unfortunately we find there polarized and hostile conversations, altered images, dangerous health claims and cures along with anti-science information.  They are shared thoughtlessly without even have a fact-checking.  So, the authors emphasize that while social media offers powerful tools for communication and connection, it also requires users to critically assess the content they share and the values they uphold.

-----Thulasidharan V