Social Networking Sites and Privacy Issues

Social networking sites have made it easy for individuals to share personal information and sharing of this information has become the norm. Many users of social networks are comfortable sharing their private life online and they have little regard for their privacy. The popularity of social networking sites has also been on the rise with more and more people creating accounts regardless of their age. Social networking sites have also made it easy for individuals to sign up and create accounts. While many people see social networking sites as offering online communication and interaction they fail to understand the complexities surrounding their privacy (Feng & Xie, 2014). This has resulted in a myriad of privacy issues like personal information being accessed by both friends and strangers. Sharing location data can be dangerous as it allows anyone who can see your posts to know where you are at any given time. Identity theft has also increased due to the lax privacy concerns of many users who will share all their personal information making it easy for their identity to be compromised or stolen.
All the social networking sites offer their users with numerous ways for them to control the information that is published and shared on their online profiles. However, many of the users are not aware of the risks that are posed by them sharing information with total strangers. The privacy settings offered are also unclear and not easily understood because the sites might use lots of jargon to explain how they use the information a user post. This makes it hard for most users to understand and they will continue to use the sites without understanding the risks. With the advent of user experience personalization, all social networking sites will sell some of the user information to advertising companies in order to receive targeted adverts on the social network.
Human and Technological Protective Measures
One of the most basic security safeguards is for social networking users to use the sites in the same way they handle offline conversations and communications. Sharing information is good, but we do not share private information with everyone. Social network users need to understand the implications that sharing information has on their lives and they should employ basic common sense. According to Zhang, Liang, Shen, and Lu (2014) before an individual post’s something online they should question if it is appropriate and if they would have shared it with everyone within their offline social circle. Users need to understand and know that when they post personal information online the information is no longer private and it might end up in the wrong hands.
To guard against potential identity theft social networking sites users, need to make use of strong passwords or passphrases. Personal security should be at the forefront of every user and there are various applications that can be used to generate strong passwords. Social networking sites might offer multi-factor authentication and it is prudent that users make use of this to ensure that even if their account password is hacked the hackers will still not gain access to their account. Antivirus and anti-spyware is essential to ensure that a user is protected from viruses, malware, and spyware. Using this software will ensure that a user is always protected from malware and spyware that they might come across when they are using social networks. It has been noted that hackers are increasingly using social networking sites to trick users into visiting their pages and websites, which contain malicious software and other applications. Spyware can be used to spy on a person and the information collected can be used maliciously. With a strong and updated antivirus application, one is able to guard against any spyware that attackers might use to breach their privacy.
Problems Related to Management Information Systems
The three problems related to management information systems that might arise from social networking sites and privacy are phishing, hacking, and spyware. Phishing is the creation of fake websites that purport to be the legitimate website for a business. The main goal of the website is to obtain sensitive user data. The attackers can make use of social networking sites to trick the users into logging in to their information systems and this would give them access to the system. The best way to guard against phishing is to always double check the URL one is using before they enter any sensitive information like usernames and passwords (Sicari, Rizzardi, Grieco, & Coen-Porisini, 2015). Users should also avoid clicking on links sent via email or through social networking sites. Attackers will make use of direct messages to send you links to their fake websites and if one is able to avoid clicking on the links they would not give out their credentials to the attackers.
Hacking of social networking sites can result in the hackers gaining access to an organization's systems. This is because many users will access the social networking sites from their office computers while the office systems are open. The best way to guard against hacking is to ensure that there is intrusion detection software installed on the router. This will guard against illegal access and prevent hackers from gaining access to the systems. Spyware can easily be installed on social networking sites by use of cookies. Since all internet activity is tracked by using cookies, attackers can install spyware by piggybacking on larger applications. The spyware could then be used to intercept data and capture sensitive data from the management information system. With an updated antivirus one will be able to prevent the installation of malicious software and safeguard the privacy of the information they work with or is processed in the systems.
References
Feng, Y., & Xie, W. (2014). Teens’ concern for privacy when using social networking sites: An analysis of socialization agents and relationships with privacy-protecting behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 33, 153-162.
Sicari, S., Rizzardi, A., Grieco, L. A., & Coen-Porisini, A. (2015). Security, privacy and trust in Internet of Things: The road ahead. Computer networks, 76, 146-164.
Zhang, K., Liang, X., Shen, X., & Lu, R. (2014). Exploiting multimedia services in mobile social networks from security and privacy perspectives. IEEE Communications Magazine, 52(3), 58-65.