California's Invasion Of Social Media On Privacy

Social Media and Privacy Social media has always had problems with privacy issues. Facebook has a court case regarding a person’s privacy. Snapchat had problems with the Federal Trade Commission. Linkedin’s first amendment right defense was denied. When it comes to social media, it does threaten individual privacy, because it cannot guarantee one hundred percent privacy and confidentiality: it collects private messages, photographs, emails, locations, phone numbers, and et cetra. Private messages are supposed to be kept private. At least that is what people think, but social media does not seem to think so. Facebook was alleged of violating the Wiretap Act. “California's Invasion of Privacy Act (CIPA), and California's Unfair Competition

If someone gets on a social media application it does asks for permission to gain access to the photographs, but does ensure that they will be kept confidential and no third parties will have access to the photos. One particular application known as Snapchat even guarantees that the photos you post online will permanently delete after twenty-four hours and never be seen again. However, in 2014 The Federal Trade Commission sued Snapchat due to photos not deleting amongst other things. “The FTC had alleged, inter alia, that Snapchat made false promises about the disappearing nature of the images sent through the service…” (Huffman 311). Individuals using this application expects them to actually be gone for good. For example, a highly paid lawyer may have a night out with her old college friends that she has not seen in years, she accidently over drinks and uses Snapchat. Her photos are supposed to delete after twenty-four hours for good. Luckily none of her colleagues have viewed them and no one has screenshotted them within this twenty-four-hour time frame. They deleted off of her story on Snapchat, but then a week later these same exact photographs ended up on billboards, in newspapers, and on other social media websites. Snapchat did not guarantee her privacy and her career is in jeopardy! With that being said, social media threatens individual

In order to use certain applications such as Whisper a person need to have their location turned on. Whisper is a venting app and there are strangers from all over the world that can reply to the vent. Once they click on the vent it shows the city, state, age range, and sex. This is important information that can put someone’s life in danger, because too much personal information is being shared. “Just as Josef K unwittingly shared all his known and unknown information with the authorities, so we are now all sharing our most intimate spiritual, economic and medical information with all the myriad “free” social-media services, products, and platforms” (Andrew Keen 429). Some even use location on social media in the event that they may get lost, but there are just so many stalkers out in this world that can get a hold of this information and harm someone due to information that is suppose to be