Abstract

Social media privacy helps individuals to mind their business without interference from the outside world, social media helps to fascinate an identity on the virtual aspect and let you communicate with one another with the helps of the innovative aspect of some outstanding social media of today. However, the breaches may affect the level of privacy to an extent where some of your personal data that is mail and so one can be leaked. On the other hand, the data stored by the social media as Whatsapp and Facebook will be stored on a host that is a third party for all the transactions and if the users do not agree their account will be removed and your data? Only the company will know. In addition, it seems that the invasion of privacy is the seed empowering the growth of power, in other words the more a company knows about one and each other the more powerful he will be.

Privacy on social platforms are quite at risks nowadays, what are your views?

People shared a sense of having difficulties not being constantly connected. (personal communication, 30 March 2016). Whether for working purposes or private use the majority of people nowadays are constantly connected through social media platforms, from a video conference to sharing, posting and furthermore, all these data records are stored by few severs but where and by who? That is the real question. Everyone is at risks on the web as everything you post, write, likes or even shares leaves a data trail on the internet. Heikkinen, Aada. (2020). Social media platforms as Facebook or even Instagram has helped the new generation to create a new identity based on posts, photos and information they share, well it is under certain circumstances good as for some people it is important to look good on the web rather than in real life, it is called the digitalisation. However, information given to such platforms can be used against ourselves in many ways that we were unable to think as we had in certain ways ‘lower down our guards’. In addition, new communicative social platforms as Whatsapp for example, are re-writing their terms and condition for their level of privacy and actually do not attempt to let consumers a chance to decide, they are imposing their laws and a delay. “A privacy nightmare hegemony” as described by some CEO’s. Privacy has always been one of the important pillars of every decent civilisation and have you ever questioned yourself about whether privacy is still being considered as it were in the 1990’s. China being under a communist state and eventually their law for privacy is quite different from any other country living in a democratic political status. Baker, S. (2014). They use a special privacy laws to punish different opinions questions. A world without privacy will be considered not different of China, a dictatorship movement. What can be understand is that social media platforms are slowly taking the control upon consumers and can lately result in the seed empowering the growth of an empire who will be able to decipher every single details about one another as no privacy will no more exist.

Using social media has become not only a privilege but a necessity. Alam, Shafin .(2019). Nowadays, everyone is connected to social media, the multi platforms has bring another dimension to our reality. The number of internet users worldwide increased by 8.6% over the past 12 months, with 350 million new users leading to an overall total of 4.437 billion at the start of April 2019 (Chow, 2020). This statistic speaks of itself, each and everyone are creating new sensitive account giving our attributes and personal information about ourselves to create such a sense of identity to a virtual system which stored every single data about everything we like, post, share or comments for example on the well known social platform as Facebook. Such technology offers the opportunity to form supportive social relations in multiple context that don’t strongly overlap. Simmel, (1960). To sustained the argument above, in other words social media is a pathway to socialise not in life but in a virtual way that is on community such as the modern one. Being beside a screen and trying to be someone that we are not actually able to be in real life is actually a sense of false identity and this can be seriously dangerous for each other as we don’t know what to expect and if we can trust that people. Even if the basement of social network was made for these set up, a web based service that allows to construct a public or semi public profile. I personally think that at this moment where it first emerged we didn’t take false identity and privacy breach as a real threat.

When social network was first established people thought actually that the majority will control their self and protect the most of their identity as there would be a sense of network self. According to Papacharissi, “sociability is practiced to the network via the network.” In other words, these social performances oriented must carry a meaning for multiple publics and audience without actually sacrificing one’s true sense of self. With some innovation unit as some social media update their software in order to increase the sense of realism as for instance, the location and further more the motion of sharing our location when one another is travelling is a very dangerous situation. Those innovations of Facebook and Twitter is making more and more people at risks more particularly their home and few precious stuff, the “Check In” that uses a location tracker on Facebook can alert one another where you are travelling for instance. This is making a flout out the level of privacy unit as firstly nearly everyone or at least their virtual friends can see what they are posting, however, there are also hackers who actually target those things for robbery. Social media putting aussie home safety at risk. (2011, Dec 15). As said previously our privacy is not one the safe side with such technology nowadays, hackers that operates in the dark will hit right on the spot when we actually think we are safe.

In 2013, a bunch of the Bush’s family was leaked with a dozens of private mail, celebrities are not only the aim of hackers, if powerful people are being targeted and abused then   what is up to our privacy? Tsukayama, H. (2013). The idea of surveillance can be applied as whatever the privacy level that can be used to protect our data, someone can always have access to those personal attributes as the few example shown above, data breaches is on of the serious problems that until now no one have solved but that do not stop people to continue sharing content and let a high level of their privacy visible to an extent.

Furthermore, new communicative technologies are bringing new responsibilities for organizations, those new changes make us question our perception on whether is it reasonable to trust the safety and privacy measures on social media. Normally, social media privacy helps individuals or company to mind their business without interference from the outside world, that is, they are able to do press conference, power point and further group work and financial transactions online and instantly which is really advantageous for them in terms of time and more. One of the most popular social media, Whatsapp, has decided to update his level of privacy in parallel with Facebook as they are owned by only one company. The most popular aspect of Whatsapp is actually his fast communicative aspect which really helps for the crisis the world is undergoing due to the Covid-19, online working has become the new essential trend as it helps for the running of the company’s work and furthermore the economic aspect. However, the social media has decided to update his privacy policy and asking the constant users to share their data. The new policy targets mainly business interactions, transactions and other related business interactions which allows Whatsapp and Facebook to support a third party industry / company to store all data messages. A shocking message to all the users on the globe as it will host all data with Facebook, its parent company and furthermore, the most unreal one is that if users do not accept these terms their account will be deleted. Julian Assange said in 2010 that there is a single difference between Mark Zuckerberg and him, “I give private information on corporations to you for free, and I’m a villain. Zuckerberg gives your private information to corporations for money and he’s Man of the Year.” Amid WhatsApp controversy (2021, Jan 15). This quote actually makes us quite suspicious about the what such empire as Facebook and other social media do with our data with or without our concern. Well even if this conflicts was seen as a normal thing by some spokesman of the industry: “ No one mandates users to share private data.”

It is seen as a standard industry practice by them in other words, it tells a lot about how they treat the level of privacy of their users. The 2-3 trillion dollars company will thus share transaction data, mobile device information, IP addresses, and other data on how users interact with businesses on WhatsApp and with Facebook group companies. A privacy nightmare hegemony,” wrote Sairee Chahal, founder and CEO of SHEROES. Romita Majumdar. (2021). A company so cruel about its data can make everybody shivers, as if hackers was not enough, the company itself is doubtful. In terms of other, company it is a real disaster as they can be mis-selling record of all our personal data. Unsatisfied and not approved by few users around the globe they decided to give the chance to another social communicative media which is named Telegram. What is interesting with this newly launched application is that it has took advantages of the fault of Whatsapp privacy which has results to an increase in users for the company. ContentEngine, L. L. C. (2021, Feb 03).  Threats when publishing our profile online for a company is that others are also collecting information and analysing the behaviour and sending ads. Nguyen, Thong. (2019). Company marketing has been created to spies entries of the social media data that is, most likely, comments, things people share, likes and posts by some software for their innovation, this system clearly shows that the protection of our level of privacy can easily be breached by other people and that no information or data will be on hundred percent safe. Spying and social media. (2015).

Atkin (1973) defined behavioral adaptation as one of the primary motivation to seek information because of an individual’s need of information that is useful for directing anticipated behaviour. The more we know about someone the more powerful we are and the person will be somehow mostly vulnerable, that is why Russia and his outstanding president Vladimir Putin has push forward a new privacy law that will help his country vis a vis the others. Putin signs personal data protection law. (2014, Jul 22). That is not even Mark Zuckerberg and his privacy system or whatever company will know more about the level of legal privacy as they must abide to the law of the Russian. Does the invasion of privacy is actually the seed to empowering the growth of power? That’s why Putin will do everything that is in his power to kept his information private, as the more people know about you and your privacy, the more you are vulnerable. The law gives the “telecommunications, information technologies and mass media oversight service Roskomnadzor the right, pursuant to a court order, to limit access to information being handled with violations of the law on personal data protection.”

To sum up privacy can be compared to a weapon that can make you ruled more than someone for instance, Julian Assange discovered that years before, as his crime was to show confidential information to the world for free. Social media terms and policy privacy are worth the read as they are very tricky in terms of words and act, furthermore, people are mostly convinced about the high security posted on the social network that their data will be safely stored with low breaches from hackers, however, marketers used their data to form strategies for their market research. Privacy is such a great word that is the world is not ready to pronounce with ease.

Reference:

Amid WhatsApp controversy, chomsky quotes assange to explain how facebook’s zuckerberg becomes ‘man of the year’. (2021, Jan 15). Kashmir Monitor Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/newspapers/amid-whatsapp-controversy-chomsky-quotes-assange/docview/2477838472/se-2?accountid=10382

Baker, S. (2014). China’s use of privacy law to punish dissent raises questions for privacy advocates. Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/blogs-podcasts-websites/chinas-use-privacy-law-punish-dissent-raises/docview/1537276817/se-2?accountid=10382

Heikkinen, Aada. (2020). Re: What is your opinion on privacy and social media?. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/post/What-is-your-opinion-on-privacy-and-social-media/5f1fdcd95bedeb0ce54d9ada/citation/download.

Putin signs personal data protection law. (2014, Jul 22). Interfax : Russia & CIS General Newswire Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/wire-feeds/putin-signs-personal-data-protection-law/docview/1547512315/se-2?accountid=10382

Papacharissi, Z.,&Trevey. M. T. (2018). Affective Publics and Windows of Opportunity ; Social Media and the Potential for social change, In M, Graham. (ed) The Routledge Companinon to Media and Activism. Routledge.

Spying and social media: Dos and don’ts for guerrilla marketing in the internet age. (2015). Strategic Direction, 31(11), 37-39. Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/scholarly-journals/spying-social-media/docview/1732340391/se-2?accountid=10382

Social media putting aussie home safety at risk: The increasing popularity of social media such as facebook and twitter is putting the homes and valuables of australians at increasing risk of robberies and theft. (2011, Dec 15). PR Newswire Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/wire-feeds/social-media-putting-aussie-home-safety-at-risk/docview/911036170/se-2?accountid=10382

Tsukayama, H. (2013). Bush, celebrity hacks raise profile of privacy concerns (posted 2013-02-08 20:27:55): Hacker’s release of highly personal.

Translated by ContentEngine, L. L. C. (2021, Feb 03). Users seek alternative to WhatsApp after privacy controversy. here are some. CE Noticias Financieras Retrieved from https://link.library.curtin.edu.au/gw?url=https://www-proquest-com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/wire-feeds/users-seek-alternative-whatsapp-after-privacy/docview/2486459324/se-2?accountid=10382