PRIVACY PLEASE!!!

Social media sites are here to stay. It’s hard to believe that there was once a time when people didn’t depend on social media sites to conduct their everyday lives. Social media has advanced to the point that now it’s actually needed and depended on. Think outside the box with me and understand that social media goes well beyond Facebook and MySpace. Social media sites are any site where people can socialize, including sites where we leave comments and reviews.(i.e. Yelp)

Social media sites are commonly ‘free’ to its customer, but often times it requires that one inputs information that may be considered personal. Signing up for you typical social sites require things like your phone number, email address, and sometimes-mailing address. This often results in unwanted advertisement from several other companies that you didn’t even know existed.

As we engage in our online social life, communicating with long-lost friends and love ones, sometimes we share pictures and thoughts with them and inadvertently share more than we intend to share with the whole world. Facebook for example allows you to add people you know. Social sites like  Facebook, twitter, and Instagram has made a great intrusion on our privacy because what we intend to be shared with approved friends can get shared to people whom we’ve never met nor care to share information with.

Besides all of that, one thing that stands out to me the most is the fact that social media sites has created a way for us to keep track with one another at all times. Facebook allows its users to update their statuses putting their current location. Not only that but if you opt out of saying where your exact location is Facebook does the favor of putting the city where your post took place. Apps such as RetailmeNot channels your location at all times giving you the current sales going on in the stores that you pass. My problem with this is that it allows for unwanted attention. If I was a very attractive individual who had stalker, chances of me wanting Facebook allowing them information on where I was would be slim to none. Same goes for if I’m a shopaholic and broke, chances of me wanting to be alerted of  sales going on at my every location are slim too .

Delete it… This may seem like a logical decision besides complaining about it, but the idea of doing things when you want goes hand and hand with privacy. Privacy is something people deserve. It should not be invaded by any means from any company or taken advantage of. Privacy should allow one to discuss or share information of their’s with specific people while at the same time choosing to withhold information from others. However we are often deprived from such privacy decision.

D’Mario A.