Social media sites are growing in size from the amount of users using their website for the service theses sites offer such as communication among peers. However, with this comes the risk of individuals personal data being leaked to a larger audience than intended. In an article titled “Privacy Issues in Post Dissemination on Facebook”, writers Sayin, Sahin, Kogias and Patrikakis discuss and emphasize privacy leakages with Facebooks current privacy policy. Two major leakages detected were how comment owners interactions may be visible beyond the expected area and how certain interactions may be inaccessible to their owners. Therefore a tool was proposed to address these issues by observing the change in spreading areas according to a persons popularity level and the preferred privacy setting for the post (SAYİN et al. 3419).
However the reason for the detected privacy problems mentioned up above are from unexpected human behaviors. Facebooks privacy policy assumes that all friends are credible and therefore the predefined privacy settings will remain the same. Therefore, SAYİN and others suggest that more awareness needs too raised to evaluate technological products while at the same time defining a privacy policy (SAYİN et al. 3430).
Burcu Sayin is currently a doctoral researcher at the University of Trento working on machine learning for social informatics. The article was published through The Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences which issues out articles ranging from video processing to artificial intelligence (“Turkish Journal”, para 1).
Corresponding to this research, an article written by Sheera Frenkel mentions how Facebook announced some changes to their privacy policy where developers could now only see usernames, profile photos and email addresses. In the past developers were allowed access to information such as users posts (Frenkel, para 13). This article shows how Facebook are taking initiative to limit the amount of information being accessible to others that users might not be aware of. However it also showcases how this is a big downside for app developers. For example, Tinder was affected as now users were no longer able to log on the apps using their facebook account. Pod ,which is a calendar synching app, discovered that users could no longer see facebook events within their calendars. Cube-you was another app mentioned that was affected as they no longer had access to Facebook users information gathered through quizzes that was then later sold to clients(Frenkel, para 1-6). While limiting certain functions on other apps, Facebook is heading towards the right direction on protecting users privacy through their updated privacy policy as now third parties now longer have information from individuals when then can be exploited without the user knowing.
Sheera Frenkel currently works for the New York Times where she mainly writes about the topic of cybersecurity from San Francisco. She has also previously worked for Buzzfeed, The Times of London and McClatchy Newspapers. Frenkel also has experience as being a foreign correspondent in the Middle East for over twelve years (“Sheera Frenkel”, para 1).
Works Cited
“Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences”,TÜBİTAK Academic Journals, journals.tubitak.gov.tr/elektrik/index.htm;jsessionid=8313E71668D52017CEDFCF0834D5CA8F.
Frenkel, Sheera, “Facebook Tightens Privacy Policy, and Add Makers Are Feeling the Pinch.” New York Times, page B4 N, May 01 2018, p. 1. ProQuest. Web. 11 Nov. 2019 .
SAYİN, Burcu, et al. “Privacy Issues in Post Dissemination on Facebook.” Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences, vol. 27, no. 5, Nov. 2019, pp. 3417–3432. EBSCOhost, doi:10.3906/elk-1811–25.
“Sheera Frenkel.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2019, www.nytimes.com/by/sheera-frenkel.
