Blog #7 Online Privacy

 Online Privacy and Our Privacy

Social media being prominent in today's world and has been growing for the past two decades and is continuing to grow. They are used to share our on live and what we want to put out into the world. It is a great place to just socialize and connect with friends and to stay connected with people you might night see every day but while it social media may have stuff private that only you can see it, companies find ways to access that data and distribute it to others. 

These social media apps such as Instagram and TikTok have a trending page that collects data from the user to then put it in front of them so they get the content and interests that they like. But also that data can be collected by these companies to get a profile on you to then share. With this, it strips the privacy that we wanted that we the users wanted, especially when our accounts our "private" and only our friends can see what we post. Companies can get away with this through their terms and conditions that they write out for the user. With phrasing of it making it so the company is able to use your account as an example or use it for what ever they want without having to ask the user. 

Though I feel as though my view is quite apparent, it seems that these companies are using our own information for their own benefit. This issue affects everyone who has put any form of personal information on any social media platform and even google. This means that unless people are completely off the internet, people have some form of personal information being taken from them. I personally think that the government should take more of a stance against these companies taking our private information but I highly doubt that the government will actually do that. One time where the government did get involved wasn't due to a privacy issue but a supposed Monopoly case against FaceBook. 

I would say that a way to avoid this is to create fake accounts that hide ones personal information. For example a false name and address so that they have a harder time accessing your private information. Also being aware of what you are putting out there and the websites you are signing up for because there is no knowing hot they will get your information.