Blog: Privacy

With new media, there are always new arising challenges for our privacy. With the world becoming more transparent due to our obsession with social media and our constant sharing and double tapping, it has made it far too easy to be able to know what a person is doing. Daniel Reed wrote an article titled, "Information Privacy: Changing Norms and Expectations" where he talks about the "evolving notions of electronic information privacy." In that article Reed mentions how challenging privacy issues have become with new media. Along with these challenges, we are presented with very vague terms of agreement documents that we check off when using social media as mentioned by Reed. The options we are presented with by using social media makes it very confusing for users, as the privacy specifications are not easy to understand. With social media, information spreads fast and can double. Friends within your circle can like a post, but it can circulate across the internet for others to view. There is this "overlapping" that Reed mentions, is relating to the social relationships we have with the people we share our photos with. We don't really have a strict boundary when it comes to our social life activity. You can't really dictate what's being shared on the web, as it spreads fast. New media faces these type of challenges everyday, because privacy and confidentiality of our information is being targeted when using these new media services. Another article, "The Wild West of Privacy" written by Joe Nocera, presents the same arguments about this privacy challenge we have with new media. Nocera also touches upon the terms of agreement issue where our information's confidentiality is not entirely secure because it is up for data collection. Terms of agreement documents fail to explain why or create simpler text for people to understand when agreeing to these terms. Companies are using our information, but are not giving us an answer to why they need our data. Nocera also includes the idea about how our information can be "breached." If there were more incentives to secure our data then there would be better privacy for users of social media. We need better privacy legislation for the better of our own privacy and confidentiality of our own information. Data collectors should let people know why their information is being used and collected. People need to be aware of where and why their information is being collected, and should be educated about who has access to their data and information. Thus privacy and confidentiality is so significantly related to New Media.