The topic of privacy online has become increasingly magnified with the
continuous introduction of new media, specifically social networking sites.
Sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter are great ways to connect with
others, but they are also easy ways to share sensitive or private information.
The problem with sharing information online is that once it is on the web, it
is there forever. Sure, you can delete the post, but someone could have copy
and pasted it or screenshot it. Not to mention sites like Facebook archive your
activity on the site. Information is also automatically stored in code once
created. People can talk online the same as when they talk in person, but there
is a much greater risk of what you say being recorded and seen by unfriendly
eyes. Of course, the same could be said for blogs and wikis. Putting sensitive
information on the web for anyone to see could certainly come back to bite you.
As new media continues to develop, we must be able to control ourselves and
what information we distribute online for our own privacy.
It is definitely important that we as users of websites choose wisely what we want to be posted. While I agree with your post, I do not want the entire blame to be put on the user. Should the medium of new media not have any ethical issues that should be put into question? I think since our society is becoming a much more viral/virtual/globalized market, there must be a way to protect this new found community of ours. We should be protected, our information, posts, etc. as it will eventually, if not already, contribute to a significant portion of our life.
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