An Analysis of Social Networking Sites: Privacy Policy and Features

Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are at the heart of many people lives, and the majority of both students and adults who use them to share information, keeping contact with old friends and meeting new acquaintances. However, the increasing number of action on online services also gives a raised to privacy concerns and issues. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is investigate the two SNSs i.e. Facebook and Friendster in terms of privacy policy and features, users‟ preferences and needs as well as producing a guideline for good SNSs from users design perspective. In an attempt to achieve the objectives of this study, however, two different approaches were employed; first literature has reviewed for two SNSs for the comparative analysis, and secondly quantitative approach technique was used. Online questionnaire was designed and published on the web and the respondents were able to access and sent back respectively. The survey was limited only to one hundred respondents within the Universiti Utara Malaysia. Findings from this study reveal that there are significant differences and similarities between Facebook and Friendster privacy policy and features. However, Friendster has hidden users‟ identity information by default to only friends, while Facebook has made it public to everyone. Results from survey in this study indicate that most of the respondents disclose information including personal and private information with public and friends, nevertheless, many respondents prefer to share their personal and private information with friends. Although, majority of respondents are aware of privacy setting changes, while they have notable attitude toward privacy protection as well as trust. This study usher a new era towards knowledge of social networking sites and the result can be use to the body of literature on information system with emphasis on privacy policy setting and features

Protest Against the Loss of Privacy in Dave Eggers' The Circle Novel (2013): A Sociological Perspective

This research aims to find out the effect of loss of privacy in The Circle by Dave Eggers and the author’s reason in create this novel. In analyzing The Circle, this research uses sociological perspective with three perspective presented by Swingewood and Laurenson (1972) and three sociology of literature principles are presented by Wellek and Warren (1948). The effect of loss of privacy that Dave Eggers tries to show is found that there are several privacy has been interrupted. By investigating the society at that time it can be concluded that the loss of privacy created by The Circle Company has given impact to one of the users of the program they built, which is called TruYou. Thus, the result of the study is discusses the negative impact that new age technology has on society and tries to warn one of the consequences. Keyword: privacy, sociological perspective, TruYou, society, negative impac

Interrogating Privacy in the digital society: media narratives after 2 cases

The introduction of information technology (IT) in the society and its pervasiveness in every aspect of citizens’ daily life highlight societal stakes related to the goals of IT uses, social networks being a most important example. This paper examines two cases which have in common a not straightforward link with privacy as addressed and protected by existing law in Europe (EU) and the United-States (USA), but whose characteristics, we reckon fall on other privacy function and properties. In Western societies individuals rely on normative discourses such as the legal one in order to ensure protection. Hence, the paper argues that other functions of privacy need either further framing into legislation or they need to constitute in themselves normative commitments of an ethical nature for technology development and use. Some initiatives at EU level recall such commitments namely by developing a normative discourse based on ethics and human values. We argue that we need to interrogate society about those normative discourses because the values we once cherished in a non-digital society are seriously being questioned.JRC.G.7-Digital Citizen Securit

ZU SEIN, ODER NICHT ZU SEIN BEI FACEBOOK: SLOWAKISCHE JUGENDLICHE UND IHR NUTZEN DER SOZIALEN NETZWERKE

This paper offers findings based on analysis of data drawn from a 2015 survey of 286 children and adolescents in Slovakia. This study investigates what the patterns of use of Social Networking Sites (SNSs) are among Slovak children and adolescents. The results demonstrate that SNSs are popular among young people, and that even children younger than 13 have SNS profiles, and mainly access the Internet at home. They tend to spend more time using SNSs at weekends than on school days. The majority of parents do not apply restrictions in relation to Internet and SNSs use. The study aims to determine what factors predict the use of SNSs. Factors such as sex, age, time spent on the Internet, viewing SNSs as a freer place, and experience with cyberbullying were taken into consideration.Die vorliegende Studie bietet die Ergebnisse der Datenanalyse aus dem Jahr 2015. Im Rahmen der Studie wurde eine fragebogenbasierte Befragung bei 286 Kindern und Adoleszenten aus der Slowakei durgeführt. Autor der Studie erforscht das Nutzen von sozialen Netzwerken unter slowakischen Kindern und Adoleszenten. In Ergebnissen wird die Hypothese bestätigt, dass die jungen Menschen Vorliebe für soziale Netzwerke haben. Zu denen gehören auch die Kinder, die unter dreizehn Jahre sind und sie haben ein eigenes Profil in sozialen Netzwerken. Die Studie ist zum Schluss gekommen, dass die jungen Menschen vor allem zu Hause den Internetanschluss nutzen und sie verbringen im Internet mehr Zeit am Wochenende als unter der Woche. Die Mehrheit der Eltern setzt ihren Kindern keine Limitierungen bei der Nutzung vom Internet. Genauso ist es auch mit dem Gebrauch sozialer Netzwerke. Eins der Ziele der Studie war, es festzustellen, von welchen Faktoren die Nutzung sozialer Netzwerke determiniert ist. Unter analysierten Faktoren waren: das Geschlecht, die verbrachte Zeit im Internet, die Wahrnehmung sozialer Netzwerke als einen Raum mit grösser Freiheit und die Erfahrungen mit Cybermobbing

Book review: status update: celebrity, publicity, and branding in the social media age

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013, p368, $27.50 (hardcover)

Undergraduate Admissions Decisions of Selective Institutions: The Impact of Social Media Information

This causal comparative study examines the impact of decisions made by college admissions personnel at colleges and universities ranked as Highly Competitive, Highly Competitive Plus, Most Competitive, Very Competitive, and Very Competitive Plus by Barron’s Profiles of American Colleges (2018). Admissions representatives were asked to evaluate social media content of hypothetical applicants to their institution then complete a trait inference task based on the Deese-Roediger-McDermott false recognition paradigm. A total of 413 institutions were invited to participate in the online activity to establish the effect of online impression formation by admissions personnel and its impact on admissions decisions. The survey was completed by 44 institutional admissions representatives (n = 44). Admissions decisions results were then compared for effects of the treatment utilizing two one-way ANOVAs. A Welch’s t-test was then utilized to compare decisions between institutions with a self-reported policy regarding inclusion of social media in admissions decisions and those without such a policy in place. Results found significance on the false recognition paradigm, but not on admissions decisions based on the social media posts nor when institutions were classified by the presence of an institutional policy regarding its use in the admissions process. Thus, it was determined this sample of admissions personnel made spontaneous trait inferences from social media posts of hypothetical applicants. Suggestions for future research are included