The Importance Of Facebook Privacy

In the digital age, social networking sites become a prominent social utility for networking and social activities. They promote openness which eases communication, however, users are often unaware that sharing their personal information can cause threats to privacy. Facebook is a leading social networking site with over one and a half billion of monthly active users (Facebook Newsroom, 2015). It was primarily created for college students, however, now it is becoming more diverse in terms of age, background and technical skills (Brandtzæg and Heim, 2009). In fact, different age groups represent different needs of privacy (Karahasanovi´c, Brandtzæg, Vanattenhoven, et al., 2009; Raynes-Goldie, 2010). Although it congregates an enormous number of users, it has some severe flaws in their privacy policy. This essay will examine privacy concerns about Facebook – both caused by institutional and social factors. The former includes technological tools, software, the culture which Facebook promotes and the latter examines users ' behaviour, a level of awareness and hypothetical acceptance of invasion of their privacy. Indeed, privacy is dead in the age of social media, considering how much personal data becomes public because of institutional and social pressures. In spite of users privacy concerns, they are …show more content…
Furthermore, Privacy International created a report in which Facebook was put in the second lowest group because of multiple threats to privacy, for instance – data mining. Additionally, Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic filed a complaint against Facebook where they expressed their concerns