Security and Privacy Issues Associated with Social Media †Samples

Question: Discuss about the Security and Privacy Issues Associated with Social Media. Answer: Introduction The computer based technologies, which help for creating and sharing any type of data or information or ideas through several communication networks that are present virtually is known as social media. This social media has several features and aspects. The main feature is the interactive Web 2.0 applications (Bertot, Jaeger Hansen, 2012). The users have to create account in the application and thus can communicate with the entire world. There are several types of social media platforms in the modern world. The most popular are the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and many more. Facebook has the largest number of users, which crosses over almost thirty billion in number (Gundecha Liu, 2012). WhatsApp is the second most popular after Facebook. It came in the year 2009 and soon it gained popularity all over the world. In the year 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for more profit. Currently, almost one billion users are using WhatsApp and it is the most significant popular messag ing and texting application. These social media applications are extremely popular for all the users and individuals especially for the youth generation (Chen Bryer, 2012). However, there are several security and privacy issues related to these social media platforms, which often turn out to be vulnerable for the society. The report covers a brief description about the security and privacy issues associated with social media. The report provides a detailed discussion on the challenges and problems occurred due to the security and privacy issues. The report also discusses about the relevant technologies of the social media and the impact of social media in modern society. The report further helps to understand what lessons are learnt from this discussion. Discussion Security and Privacy Issues in Social Media The social media is the most utilized applications in the modern world. Several types of social media are present in todays world. The most popular amongst them is the Facebook. A famous entrepreneur, namely Mark Zuckerberg created this very popular and user friendly application for its users (Smith et al., 2012). The users have to create accounts in the social media platform and then access their accounts. They can share information, photos, videos and many more. Above thirty billion people are there in Facebook. WhatsApp is the second most popular social media platform after Facebook. Around one billion users are using WhatsApp today. However, there is a negative side in every positive aspect. Security and privacy issues are extremely common in social media sites (Kavanaugh et al., 2012). The security and privacy issues often turn out to be absolutely vulnerable and dangerous for the society. These security issues mainly have a tremendous negative impact on the entire society and e specially for the youth generation, as they are mostly involved in the social media platforms. Problems The problems and the challenges that are common for the security and privacy issues associated with social media are as follows: Password: The most vulnerable and sensitive issue in any type of social media application is the password. The hacker or intruders often hack into the account by getting the passwords of the users (Taylor, Fritsch Liederbach, 2014). These types of attacks are known as the Brute Force Attacks. These are extremely common in any social media. The hacker or the intruder applies a specific software that helps to retrieve the password of the user and thus the hacker can use the account. Unauthorized Access: This is another major privacy issue in any social media application (Joe Ramakrishnan, 2014). The authorized access to the account of a particular user is not only dangerous but also illegal according to law and regulations. Either this authorized access can occur by hacking that is by entering into someones account without his/her permission or this access can be of unauthorized physical access (Berns, 2017). It is absolutely illegal to access someone elses computer, laptop, tablet or mobile phones without his/her permission. Leakage of Personal Information: This is another significant threat in case of security and privacy for any social media application (Trainor et al., 2014). Nowadays, every personal photo, video, audio is posted and shared with the social media friends by all users. The social and the personal life are opened in front of everyone. However, not everyone present in the social media is safe (Criado, Sandoval-Almazan Gil-Garcia, 2013). The hacker or the intruder gets all the personal information or data as soon as the victim enables all his/her photos or videos online. Relevant Technologies The technologies play the most significant roles in social media application. Any application needs technology for running (Berthon et al., 2012). The most relevant technologies utilized for the social media are as follows: i) Internet: Internet is the most important resource that is needed for any activity related to social media. Any type of application can only work if the device is enabled with Internet connectivity (Oliveira Welch, 2013). Without the Internet connection, even the hacker cannot hack any profile or account. Therefore, the most relevant technology is the Internet for social media. ii) Any Type of Systems: Any type of application requires a system or device to run on it. The second most relevant technology is any system. The mobile phones, the computers, the laptops, the tablets all of them are considered as systems (Gil de Ziga, Jung Valenzuela, 2012). Social media applications can only run if any type of systems is present or involved with it. Without the presence of systems, it is impossible to access any social media site. Impact of the Security and Privacy Issues The security and the privacy issues that are associated with the social media have an extremely strong impact on the society, especially for the youth generation, as they are the main users of these applications (Criado, Sandoval-Almazan Gil-Garcia, 2013). This impact is absolutely negative in nature and causes massive problem for the society. The main impact that is caused is the isolation or lack of communication outside the virtual world. People are not communicating in their social life and thus there social life is affected as they are more involved in the virtual world. The second impact is the health issues. This is mostly for the youth generation (Fuchs, 2017). They are not having any outdoor activity and thus several health issues are striking them like obesity, eye sight problem and many more. These impacts are extremely vulnerable for any individual. Most Important Lesson I have learnt an important lesson from the above discussion. Social media is needed for all human beings as this helps in making new friends. I have learnt that making new friends is not a problem, however depending on them and the social media application is not feasible. Moreover, the security and the privacy issues can be extremely dangerous for any user; therefore one should be careful about them. I have got the lesson that one should not share their personal information, photos, videos and other personal stuffs with any online friend. This can help them to be safe and secure. The next lesson that I have got from this discussion is that passwords should be changed and modified periodically for avoiding any type of hacking and one should not allow strangers to access their computers, laptops, tablets and mobile phones at any cost. Conclusion Therefore, from the above report the conclusion can be made that, social media are computer based technologies, which help for creating and sharing any type of data or information or ideas through several communication networks that are present virtually. This social media has several features and aspects. The main feature is the interactive Web 2.0 applications. The users have to create account in the application and thus can communicate with the entire world. There are several types of social media platforms in the modern world. The most popular are the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp and many more. Facebook has the largest number of users, which crosses over almost thirty billion in number. WhatsApp is the second most popular after Facebook. It came in the year 2009 and soon it gained popularity all over the world. In the year 2014, Facebook acquired WhatsApp for more profit. Currently, almost one billion users are using WhatsApp and it is the most significant popular messa ging and texting application. These social media applications are extremely popular for all the users and individuals especially for the youth generation. However, there are several security and privacy issues related to these social media platforms, which often turn out to be vulnerable for the society. The above report describes about the security and privacy issues that are related to the social media. These security issues should be resolved as they are affecting to the modern society massively. The report has given a detailed discussion on the challenges and problems on the security issues of social media. 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