Privacy in the Age of Social Media
Privacy Concerns on Social Media
Most users of social media, which accounts for a large portion of the population, have various privacy concerns when using social media platforms, and rightfully so. Now a days, it seems like everything we put on our socials are subject to being used without our permission for MANY purposes.
These other purposes can come in the form of hacking, impersonation, stalking, breach of data, and much more. As we continue to grow in a digitally driven world, privacy concerns will grow with us, along with the people who work very hard to try to steal our data. Users are much more easily tricked into handing over their personal data because they are not even aware they are doing it. Those trying to steal our data, are getting very creative in their attempts because they know society is catching on.
Various companies, businesses, and hackers find loopholes in social media platform’s privacy regulations to extract customer data in creative ways. So, even though users are becoming more aware that their data is not safe online, they do not realize the magnitude of the situation or exactly how to protect it.
There are various types of ways that criminals are able to trick users into handing over sensitive information. The typical social media threats include data mining, phishing attempts, malware sharing, and botnet attacks.
Data mining is when companies collect data on user behavior. They are able to do this by using your personal information that you may include on a new social media account. The information you provide and essentially store on that particular social media account is stored and used by companies to create better advertising to consumers. That doesn’t sound too bad does it? Why wouldn’t users want companies to create better advertisements for them? Well, companies are using your personal information without users’ knowledge or consent. They use information like name, birth date, location, interests, hobbies, likes, dislikes, and more. This data can be used for other purposes as well and is sometimes sold to other companies and people, again, without your knowledge or consent. Nothing you put on the internet, or include in your social media accounts, is private. Even if you think you have every possible privacy setting enabled, you are still at risk of companies practicing data mining. Everyone leaves a data trail.
Another threat is phishing attempts. These are schemes where criminals try to get their hands on your personal information by pretending they are from a legitimate or credible organization. There are various ways they do this. They might use an email, text, or phone call to trick users into sharing their personal information. People have been tricked into sharing very important personal information like passwords, banking information, credit card details, and more by phishing techniques. You may be thinking, “Oh I’m not dumb enough to share my personal information with some obviously fake telemarketer”. Well, sometimes these attacks are not as easy to identify. Phishing attempts are often used on social media platforms in the form of fake two-factor authentication systems, faulty links, etc.
Another threat is malware sharing, or malicious software. This is an intrusive software that is designed to gain access to personal data, once installed on a user’s device. Social media platforms are an accessible place for malware to be distributed. Have you ever gotten a weird message from a friend on Instagram or seen a weird status update on Facebook? Most people have, or have been victims of this, otherwise known as hacking. Hacking is usually achieved through some type of phishing scheme. Once a user’s account is compromised, criminals can take over that account and distribute malware to any friends or followers of that user’s account through those weird messages or status updates. Sometimes there are embedded links in the message that distribute the malware, other times, just opening the message or status update will be enough to distribute the malware.
Another popular threat is botnet attacks, or use of social media bots. These are automated accounts that can create posts, follow people, etc. when a certain term or phrase is mentioned on that platform. When there are a large number of social media bots, they form a botnet. Botnets are very prevalent on social media. Their purpose is to steal data, send spam, and distribute software that compromises other people’s accounts, devices, and networks.
So, it is prevalent that there are a lot of different ways the wrong person can get their hands on your personal data. Sometimes it will be easier to identify when you are at risk, other times it might be very difficult or nearly impossible. This is why it is so important to be extremely careful about what you share on social media and be extremely cautious in who you follow, who you are friends with, who you allow to follow you, and more on social media. Companies, businesses, and cybercriminals are going to continue to use various tactics in an attempt to steal your personal data, so consumers need to continue to be vigilant.
Which Platform is Most Trustworthy?
Privacy concerns can vary depending on what platform is being used. In February 2021, Engine Insights conducted a survey that shows Facebook seems to be more trustworthy than other social media platforms, according to Americans. Around 25% of Americans say they trust Facebook more than Youtube, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These are considered to be the “Big Five” social media platforms. However, over 30% of Americans say they do not trust any of these platforms, according to Engine Insights. Regardless of the platform consumers choose to use, whether that be one of them, all of them, or the one they trust the most, every platform has its risks.
However, the amount of trust consumers have in a certain platform can determine how much information they share on that platform, or the privacy settings they enable. If a consumer has high trust in Facebook, they will probably be more relaxed in their privacy settings and more willing to share personal or sensitive information. On the other hand, if a consumer has low trust in Twitter, they will probably have every privacy setting enabled and share the least amount of information. This means there is a higher chance they will fall victim to privacy invasions on Facebook, more so than Twitter. Just because you trust a certain social media platform more than another, does not mean it is necessarily “safer” than others.
Why Should I Care?
Now brings us to the most important question, why should I even care?
Users of social media must be very weary of what information they are sharing on social media platforms and their privacy settings as well as what the consequences of not properly protecting your privacy could be. In an online blog written by Olivia Valentine, on We Are Social, she says many people are aware of the various privacy issues on social media and know how to access their privacy settings, but very few take the most conservative, securing approach in terms of protecting their data. Additionally, she says that very few stop using a social media platform due to privacy issues, delete the app, or actually research how their data is being used on that platform.
There are many ways to prevent misuse of your personal data online. One way is to actually read and understand data regulation policies between social media platforms and users. Another is to not just blindly accept the “terms and conditions” without fully reading and understanding them. Users can also reduce their overall personal sharing, make sure all accounts are “private”, do not allow apps access to location, and actually research how their information is being used. However, there is a responsibility for social media platforms to be extra careful in order to keep users’ information safe. Since they technically, “own” the data, they need to make sure it is not falling into the hands of someone who wants to misuse it.
Overall, social media users need to be vigilant in protecting their personal data. Ultimately, we are in charge of protecting our privacy. We are living in a digitally driven world, where social media dominates a large portion of our lives. So, we need to make sure that part of our lives’ is protected.
