Privacy

     New media plays a vital role in issues revolving privacy and confidentiality. Popular new media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat are just a few prime examples of how easily our privacy is exploited without our full knowledge. These platforms have features that allow followers to access a user's location which can pose a dangerous threat to one's own safety if found in the wrong hands. Pictures and videos posted on these online platforms for solely innocent, entertainment purposes can be saved by viewers and used for inappropriate conduct. Facebook has continuously suffered from serious criticism regarding privacy issues and still faces them today. People have become very smart figuring out alternate routes to access private information especially on these types of platforms. As discussed in the article "The Wild West of Privacy," Joe Nocera states "Google, Facebook and other big Internet companies collect information about us, which they deploy in the service of advertisers." Advertisers use our information to target customers in areas they know will reel us into their businesses. New media has given companies the ability to start collecting our personal information including even our medical data for their own benefit which is suppose to be protected under federal law. New media technologies allows others to have a lot of power in my opinion. Others either have or can get access one way or another to basically anyone's information they please. There are a variety of tools that enable personal data to be breached and it has become far too easy. Patrick Svitek and Nick Anderson discuss in the article "University of Maryland computer security breach exposes 300,000 records," a scandal that occurred which compromised students' personal information. The hackers were able to gain access to the database that holds records such as names, social security numbers, date of births, and university identification numbers. Once hackers gain access to this type of information it is very easy to make duplicates of it and have identity theft crimes done as well. Intruding in users' privacy and confidentially can have a domino effect of negative events which should be prevented as much as possible, however, new media technology makes this a hard task to accomplish.

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/25/opinion/nocera-the-wild-west-of-privacy.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=1

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/college-park-shady-grove-campuses-affected-by-university-of-maryland-security-breach/2014/02/19/ce438108-99bd-11e3-80ac-63a8ba7f7942_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.5f39f2fc6211