Privacy

      
         Privacy and Confidentiality may be one of the most important aspects of safety when it comes to using New Media. Privacy and confidentiality IS the most important aspect of safety when it comes to using New Media! New Media is all around us, non-stop, 24 hours a day, constantly running and never powering down. It is a network that is spread all across the globe and everyone is able to see  what is going on, what is trending and what is making news. Recently, with New Media there has been a number of breaches such as in Target, University of Maryland and even Turbo Tax. All of these instances, gave access to personal information from millions of people. This information was stolen from a credit card or identification card which hides your identity, and other personal information. Online however, such as a social networking website, your personal information is put on display to the extent you make is ready and available to others. Many fear for internet security and this is just one of the concerns of an ever changing technological world. Privacy and confidentiality in terms of New Media, is very important and in some cases can ruin the lives of an individual. What you make private on the internet, is made private for a reason. However with many advancements, change in privacy rules on social networking sites, or even network servers, not everything meant to be private, stays private. Additionally, information that is posted online or sent into a network even if privatized, has the potential to been seen my many, even everyone with a few clicks of a button. 

            Another privacy concern when using social media is that businesses that are transparent are more prone to sophisticated social engineered hacks. An employer or employee may post something on social media but little did they know hackers can use that information to their advantage. Any type of information can provide these hackers with leads. Huge data breaches would be costly for companies to take preventative measures. Furthermore, Cyber-bullying has become an issue affecting teenagers worldwide. Although the government and many organizations are running awareness campaigns, they are not effective in preventing bullies from posting nasty and threatening comments to their victims. Victims are bullied physically and mentally, from school to a screen in their home. Social media poses many privacy issue to young teenagers when they post user content online. Bullies may steal personal photos of victims and post them online anonymously to ruin their reputation. Moreover, information technology may have made our lives more convenient in many ways, but many of the problems it poses are often ignored, or very little is done about it. Information technology is only at the early stages of development and as we progress, we should think about potential future risks and how to solve current problems, rather than allowing them to occur.

         
          If something is meant to be private and you wouldn’t want many people to view it, then it probably would be best to keep it off the internet or a network so you control who really see’s it or not.