Social Media And Privacy Settings

As of 2015, the International Telecommunication Union estimated that half of the world’s population is using the internet in some way. Whether it be using social media or just simply searching something on Google, the internet allows people to stay in touch with both current events, and friends and family. Ever since the first social media site was created in 1997, there has been suspicion as to if the government or other social media companies are able to view the information of those with an account. These suspicions have led to the creation of privacy settings that supposedly keep one’s personal information safe and protecting it from being stolen. With the advancing technology in today’s society, one may wonder if such privacy is even possible;

With this being said, though, the more consumers that there are just means that an increased amount of data is being collected. It was found in an article written by Becca Caddy on January 20, 2017 that Google tracks every single thing one does on their browser; this includes both typed searches and voice searches, the location in which the searches are made, and anything that was supposedly deleted (Caddy). Google claims that this data is being used for the consumer’s benefit, as in it helps the company make changes that will make the site more user-friendly, but many people become angry when the privacy rules are broken to do so. In an article by Olivia Lowenberg from December 2, 2015, she explains that Google even collects data from the devices of young children through the use of their school issued devices. Google had signed a privacy pledge that prevented them from recording or misusing a student’s data from their Google Chromebooks. However, despite the pledge, Google continued to collect data from the students and share it with various third parties. By disobeying the signed pledge, there were many complaints from various families and schools, causing Google to get sued. This goes to show that companies are able to find their way around rules, just to collect certain data in order to benefit their own

This online security, however, may have been a detriment to our overall privacy online. Even with the vast amount of privacy options on various social media outlets, more and more personal information is being saved from our internet use no matter what settings we have. This includes passwords, credit card numbers, or even anything someone has purchased online; social media sites and other companies in partner with those sites all have access to one’s data and are able to use it however they choose. The FCC, Federal Communications Commission, regulates many different transactions on the internet, including how much information these companies should be able to access. Fred Campbell explains in an article he wrote that in 2016, the FCC made the decision to prevent anyone’s information to be used for personal attractions such as tailored-to-you ads. These rules, however, were “only to a limited set of companies and internet connections, which means consumers’ ability to protect their information changes from one internet company or internet connection to the next”(Campbell). People were upset by this because the rule makes it easier for more of their information to be leaked on the internet no matter how many safety settings they enabled on their accounts. It seems as if no matter