Forget About Privacy

Social networking has become very popular, and it encourages more users to share personal information, even to those whom they do not know. These individuals want to expand their circle of “friends”, so they literally make themselves available to the internet community as a whole. Privacy protection no longer receives as high a priority as it used to have. As more modern technology becomes available, information sharing becomes easier and more exciting.

There are some unfamiliar facts behind Facebook users. Facebook has about 800 million users, and they can be classified into three categories. There are those users who sign on at least once a day. The second group is made up of those who sign on at least once a week. The last and third group includes those members who use it less often. There is a recently conducted telephone survey by Facebook of 2,000 adult respondents. This survey tried to look into how people view privacy in contrast with social networking.

The survey results showed that the more users make use of Facebook, the less they become concerned about privacy invasion. One respondent frankly said that he is not disturbed if people know about his online preferences or habits. This user admitted that he frequently uses Facebook more that once a day. He signs on either to get updates on his friends, or to play a popular Facebook-based game.

People who go online less often are more concerned about their privacy than those who log on more frequently. This was clearly shown in the results of the aforementioned survey. Respondents were asked if they were “very concerned” about their privacy. Taking the results together, the following were the figures gathered. Those who less frequently use Facebook comprised the highest number, at 39% of the respondents. One of the interesting results is that only 25% of those who use Facebook at least once a day said that they were “very concerned”.

Privacy concerns are the “offspring” of people who use Facebook more often. As they visit the networking site more often, they tend to share more information on the web. The availability of this kind of data online attracts many data mining companies. One can safely say that the tendency of users to easily share their information will continue. This is because social networks present more easy-to-use and stimulating features. Also, the social nature of man motivates him to connect with other people, sometimes without thinking of the consequences.


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