In today’s society revolves largely around media and technology. From typing notes in class, to browsing the internet, it all is based around the internet and electronics we use. However, just how aware is our society with their personal information on the internet?

First, we can look at your school portal, for this instance, we can look at coursespaces. All our information regarding school can be maintained in this one database and accessed on command. But there is still some information that isn’t completely private. For instance, on coursespaces, one can see whose participating in their class and some information about them (i.e. Their email address). Even though you are in control of what can be seen on your profile (i.e. Through preferences), some people are unaware or disregard that option to choose your preferred output of information. By doing this, they result in having the default option of information being put out, and could be unwillingly putting out some sensitive information to them.

Although some information is seen as a positive way and being beneficial, like having other classmates contact you by having seen your email, there are also some points that have both negative and positives to be had with sites. One of those websites and ideas we can use as an example, is Facebook.

With a website like Facebook, it truly is one of those topics that can be debated as incredibly sensitive personal details being put onto the internet. When creating or editing your profile for Facebook, you can input information like birth date, location, and even photographs you’ve uploaded. On the bright side, friends and family have an easy way to connect with you and see what is going on in your life without having to message with everyone. However, the same goes for people whom you might have no idea who they even are.

To prevent personal information being leaked to people, Facebook has settings put in place to see what people can see whom are not friends with you. They even have a setting where you can view your profile as someone whom is not friends with you. However, without the correct privacy settings, complete strangers could look up your name and collect information depending on what you’ve allowed to be seen.

Although the issue at hand is, how much private information is being leaked to outside parties, it’s a common occurrence and incorporated into our daily lives of online technology. With or without being aware of having information being shared with outside parties, there is only so much that can be done to prevent this; In a sense, there is nothing stopping information being shared and everyone could be a victim (Lyon, 2002).

With these types of information being passed around without your knowledge, its something you can think of in two ways. In one way, you can see that it is an invasion of privacy and that it is something that is morally not correct. The other way you can look at it is that the people collecting the data is trying to use the information, in a way to benefit the consumer. Either way you look at this type of information collecting, there is a lower and higher end of the spectrum to how severe information being leaked is; this is all dependant on who is trying to get the information, and the reason it is being used for.

References:

Lyon, D. (2002). Everyday surveillance: Personal data and social classifications. Information, Communication & Society, 5(2), 242-257.