Privacy Issues Associated with Social Media

Introduction 

Online social networking platforms expanded exponentially since inception in the 2000s. The mid-2010s saw Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Snapchat become household names among social media users. The proliferation in social media networks is dependent on the internet of things (IoTs), a technological concept that defines the interconnected objects on the internet platform. Kumar and Patel (2014) observed that IoTs provides the capabilities to identify and connect physical objects into a unified system worldwide. The IoTs brings together the global community regardless of the context, time, place, devices, networks, business, or personality. As a result, the manner in which people interact with friends, associates, and family members has undergone complete evolution. Social media is central to the developments that define the way the global community communicates in the modern technological dispensation. There are numerous benefits that can be drawn from social media networks, but the downside is the associated privacy and security concerns. The use of social media networks is the leading contributor to the massive influx of personal information that is readily available online. The availability of information is made possible by the developments in big data analytics. Katal et al. (2013) define big data as “large amount of data which requires new technologies and architectures so that it becomes possible to extract value from it by capturing and analysis process” (404). The characteristics of big data such as volume, velocity, variability, variety, value, and complexity generate a significant amount of challenges. Big data presents management difficulties when existing traditional techniques are deployed (Smith et al. , 2012). Consequently, personal information available online and in the cloud raises concerns about the potential of big data to safely store the information. User privacy takes the center stage in the debate about the benefits and detriments of social media. There is a consensus in social media literature that user privacy is paramount to safeguard personal information and protect owners from the rising incidents of cybercrime.

The Growth in Social Media and the Rise of Cyber Security Concerns 

The connection between social media and privacy concerns is well documented in contemporary literature. Mohamed and Ahmad (2012) demonstrated that information privacy concerns are influenced by perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy, and gender. The factors are crucial in explaining how information privacy concerns drive the use of security measures in social networking sites. However, a recent argument advanced by Brookshire (2017) asserted that social media users no longer have the autonomy to control their privacy on social networking sites. Social networks have advanced to the extent that personal information is generated through predictions based on information of how people interact with others and how they use the networks. The trend points towards the challenges in data raised in Katal et al. (2013) ad Smith et al. (2012). The potential of social networks to generate personal information from all users, including those who do not own accounts with any social networking sites, represents one of the most important challenges from the IoTs. Therefore, it is important to contextualize the magnitude of the problem by examining the number of people connected to the internet to understand why privacy concerns persist about the use of social media.

The Trends in Social Media Use 

The growth in social media is dependent on technological advancements that have led to the proliferation in mobile technology adoption. Smartphone ownership is growing exponentially all over the world with emerging economies posting significant use among the young and the well-educated. A study conducted by Pew Research Center in 2018 established that the current number of mobile phones users is approximated at 5 billion, and over half of them use smartphones (Taylor and Silver, 2019). In economically advanced countries, mobile technology, internet, and social media use are common practices. For instance, in the US, it was established that overall, majority of Americans use YouTube and Facebook, but the youthful were heavy users of Snapchat and Instagram. It is estimated that seven in ten Americans use social media to connect with one another, engage news content, share information, and for entertainment. Considering how smartphone technology and internet access have penetrated even the remotest geographical regions of the world, the trend can be said to be consistent worldwide.

The development represents a significant shift in attitudes towards technology and social media. For example, initial research conducted by Pew Research Center in 2005 demonstrated that only 5% of American adults used social media networks. The number has risen to 50% by 2011, and today, it is estimated 69% of the America’s public uses some form of social media (Pew Research Center, 2018). The trends in the rise of social media users are driven by demographics, socioeconomic factors, and penetration of technology and internet. The base of social media use has grown over the years, transitioning from initial young adults to a more representative broader population. The trends are marked by high rates of adoption among the youthful generation and increasing number of older adults.

Social Media and Cyber Security Incidents 

Privacy concerns among social media users are rising due to proliferation in incidents of cyber security. The vulnerability of social media users stems from the very definition of the platform. Gharibi and Shaabi (2012) posited that social media refers to a social structure comprising of “individuals and organizations called nodes, which are connected by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, common interest, and exchange of finance, relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige” (1202). The connections and interactions lead to the availability of large volumes of user information online and the cloud. The information and its owner can be targets of cyber threats, which can be intentional or unintentional attempts from sources such as criminals, foreign spies, hackers, virus developers, disgruntled employees, and contractors working with the organization.

Social media architecture comprises of the internet, the government, public institutions, social network service providers, and the end users, joined in operation through a social media hierarchy system. According to Kim (2012), cyber threats can target any of the components of the hierarchy system, which comprises of user applications, social media devices, and network infrastructure. These components require security trust zones, which can be implemented by creating a security boundary between any two elements of the hierarchical system. Such measures need to be complemented by constant security assessments using established frameworks that factor in all critical components of the system. He (2013) contended that a comprehensive survey and review of all security risks to which social media networks are exposed to must be established to inform the development of effective security protocols and data management strategies for the protection of the users of the platforms. The measures are applicable at individual, organizational, and social networks service provider levels.

Privacy Issues with Social Media 

Conceptualization of the problem of privacy concerns among social media users requires contextualization of Brookside (2017) assertions that users have been stripped off the power to control security aspects of their accounts. Social media has evolved to be a critical and indispensable constituent of e-commerce through its potential for data mining. Social media is dependent on user based feeding it with data. The social networking sites deal in data, communicate using the data, analyze market trends using the data, and build business models using the data supplied by the users. The data represents users’ digital selves and thus can impact their lives in unimaginable ways. The current trend in the use of big data has focused on its benefits to business organizations at the expense of social media users who supply the data. In most cases, organizations and social network service providers have not recognized and brought to light issues associated with adoption and implementation of big data technology.

According to Tan et al. (2012), privacy concerns have negatively impacted some users’ acceptance of social networking sites. Privacy concerns have been demonstrated to moderate perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use on users’ intention to continue using social media networks. The attitudes are entrenched on the concept of privacy, whose function revolves around “isolation of certain limited and culturally defined aspects of the individual’s life as being morally and legally protected from the evaluative judgment of others” (Tan et al. , 2012, p. 214). Privacy concerns emerge when users feel that their individual privacy, which includes bodily privacy, territorial privacy, information privacy, privacy of communication, location privacy, and preservation of privacy through fair information practices that define the ethical collection and treatment of information. The parameters generate privacy concerns, which refer to an individual’s awareness and assessment of the risks related to privacy violations (Tan et al. , 2012). Krishnamurthy (2013) Bazarova and Choi (2014) advanced that privacy concerns influence selective revelation of information about oneself. However, the proliferation in social networks has limited users’ choice of what they reveal to the world. The current existing privacy measures address the leakages in data that originate from the user. The solutions have limited coverage of the entities who might end up receiving, the use of data, duration of retention, and those merging the data with external information to reveal the full identity of the user.

Are User Concerns Justified? – Understanding the Problem 

It is important to reiterate that the pervasive use of social media has generated unprecedented amounts of user data. While users find the platforms to be effective in sharing information, businesses and organizations exploit the platforms’ potential to extract information whose benefits are perceived to spill users and consumers. Gundecha and Liu (2012) argued that the concept of social media data mining is founded on such a practice. However, social media generates big data that is vast, noisy, unstructured, and dynamic hence leading to novel challenges in its management. Lack of assurances about the efficacy of security protocols in the management of privacy issues has contributed to disregard of privacy risks among users due to diminished trust in privacy and protection offered by social media service providers. The situation is exacerbated by the availability of user data to third parties, a situation that enables any users proficient in social networking to extract user data. The use of social media at individual or organizational level has immense implications for users. Therefore, users must be apprehensive of the line between social and business. They need to know the risks to establish guidelines towards the right direction.

For users who want to draw maximum benefits from social medium, it is important to understand that the potential of a reverse outcome is equal strong. Some users have been victims of sensitive information or posts going public and viral. The common phrase used by those within the cycle is that “internet never forgets”. Any user of the internet has a digital fingerprint that can be mined to reveal further details about them. Through social media mining, user information not intended for the public can be posted on social media. In an era where companies hire, vet, and monitor their employees through social media platforms, one can easily find themselves in trouble for posting information contrary to the ideals of their employers. Such is the implication of the reduction of user control and management of the content posted online. Trusting on social media network providers to regulate the content that appears on individual user accounts has proven to be ineffective.

However, the most pressing issue about privacy concerns for social media users is cyber security. This issue is largely attributed to challenges of big data (Katal et al. , 2012). Priavcy and security is particularly a major concern whose sensitivity arises from the fact that it incorporates elements with conceptual, technical, and legal significance. For instance, the combination of personal information with large external data sets generates new inferences of new facts about the user, which they may prefer to remain a secret from the data owner or any other person. Use of information from social media to add value on businesses is often done by creating insights from the users’ lives without them being aware. Such data can also be used for social stratification that increase disparities in the treatment of individuals on the basis of their socio-economic and demographic characteristics. Similarly, Katal et al. (2012) argued that when big data is used by the law enforcement, its can increase chances of targeted discrimination without the affected population being knowledgeable that they have been tagged. Another critical aspect of bid data is the analytical challenge. It is important for data owners to know what data segments need to be stored, what needs to be analyzed, ways of establishing the most important data points, and how data can be used to draw the most benefits. These are critical steps in protecting social media users from leakage of unnecessary information that may be exploited by cyber criminals.

Social media is inadvertently here to stay, and so is cybercrime. Therefore, the manner in which account owners use social media platforms can have positive or negative benefits on their lives. Minimizing the risk of exposure to negative outcomes is dependent on understanding of important privacy concerns and issues. According to Kumar and Patel (2014), account hacking and impersonation is a common concern among users of social media. The rich volumes of data available through social networks makes them preferable targets for hackers, spammers, and other online criminals. A compromise social media account is appealing because it can be used to impersonate the owner. In addition, a vulnerable account can be used to spread viruses, malware, and scams in a more effective manner compared to traditional email account. Cyber criminals rely on the perception that people tend to trust messages from friends social networks and are more likely to click on a link without a second thought. Identify theft is also a common occurrence where cyber criminals may leverage on personal information to open credit card accounts or abuse the user’s identity.

Social media has made the perpetration of online stalking and harassment easy. Some users have experienced horrific incidents after people close to them hacked into their accounts to post transcripts of sensitive and private messages about their relationships and other personal information. Such hackers have also been known to change the passwords of the accounts, locking out the legitimate user permanently. By the time one is able to reclaim the account the damage has been done and their private life is out in the public domain. Van Laer (2014) opined that the need for effective measures to combat cyber harassment is attributed to its potential to have life scarring effects that can cause withdrawal from social networking sites or even life itself due to associated emotional distress. The intervention of network providers has been proven to be unhelpful, particularly in instances where the intrusion is presented as a story that violates personal identity rather than analytical facts about the incident.

There are also growing privacy concerns about the emerging practice where employers forcefully ask for access to new employees’ social media accounts by compelling them to provide passwords. Employers often cite the need to ensure their employees are not sharing confidential information or trade secrets through their accounts. Such companies that have no capacity or expertise to safeguard its employees’ social media data can expose them to cyber threats. Access to individual accounts by employers increases the potential for abuse and privacy violations, hence the need for heightened security and information control. The practice increases the risk of personal data leakage and identity theft.

Existing Regulatory Measures and Challenges and the Way Forward 

The debate on privacy issues related to the use of social media continues to reveal the ineffectiveness of existing policies and regulatory frameworks in relation to protection user privacy and personal information. The growth in social media use is synonymous with the rise of cybercrime incidents. Some factions have proposed the need for social media security to begin with individual account holders. Awareness of privacy concerns is critical to mediate the tendency to reveal personal information in social networking sites. Wang et al. (2013) advocated for what they called privacy nudges in social media. The elements, which are categorized into picture nudges, timer nudges, and sentiment nudges, are intended to provide visual cues about the audience, time delays before publication of a post, and feedback about the post. The framework allows the account holder to reflect on the potential effects and consequences of their post, weigh between the benefits and detriments, and inform decision-making. This way, social media users can regulate the content they post online including personal information, thus ensuring they have anonymous digital footprints that cannot be collated with other information to reveal their full identity.

However, the wide spread use of social networks that cuts across organizational settings calls for comprehensive policy frameworks that require legislation and legal jurisdiction. For instance, the practice where employers compel their employees to share passwords and other user account details is a violation of privacy rights and should be dealt with using the appropriate legal mechanisms. On the contrary, the fast-paced evolution of technology and social media networks, particularly the dynamic and complex nature of online platforms and utilization of big data, presents significant challenges to regulatory agencies. Policies developed today may be rendered obsolete the next day, which makes it difficult to have rules and regulations with lasting impact on the use of social media and related privacy issues. Despite the challenges in the development of effective policies, the fact that users continue to be victims of cybercrime should not be lost on stakeholders. Concerted efforts are needed to integrate social media use with existing regulatory mechanism to ensure adaptability and flexibility to address its evolving nature. These efforts should extend to the management of big data to ensure data owners observe regulations governing the type of data to be stored, used, and released to the public. Penalties for violations should be clearly stated to discourage unethical practices. In addition, data owners operating cloud services should be vetted to ensure they have the capacity and have put in place the requisite measures to handle the large volumes of complex data generated through social networks.

References

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