The paradox of social media; protecting information

In my last blog I have already discussed  that social media allows people to tell the right things about themselves and leaving other information out to make a good impression on the people who view their profile. This can influence the way people think about them and talk about them, also called social identity. However,  online social identity is not just based on the information user place on their social network profiles, but also on a number of aspects where one has little influence on, for instance messages or pictures other people place on your profile and even the kind of people you have in your friend list. In addition to this it is also possible that there is some information you want to share through online network sites, but not with everybody. It is actually kind of ironic this paradox of social media: people create an online network profile to share information with the rest of the world but also try so hard to protect that same information.

Still, it is possible to protect our privacy on social network platforms. Most of the social network sites allow their users to change several privacy settings so they can decide by themselves what information they want to share and which part of this information is public and which is not. Especially Facebook has many options when it comes to privacy and  they also simplified their privacy settings in 2010 to make it easier to shield personal information. However, a lot of users still do not know that it is possible to shield information or how to do this. Do you know how much of your information is public? It is very easy to check this:

·         Click on the Account link  in the right corner of your Facebook page

·         Open Privacy settings and click on Profile information.

·         Click on Preview my profile

By following these steps you can see at one glance which information on you profile is public and which information is only visible for your friends and change these settings if you want to. In addition to ‘choose’ how to share your information you can also  edit your list with blocked persons and applications and  edit your setting for the use of games and websites. For more information about Facebook and privacy, check their privacy guide : http://www.facebook.com/#!/privacy/explanation.php

Despite the fact that users of social net worksites can control their privacy to some extent, it can happen that you or someone else (accidently) place information on the site you did not intent to share. In general these platforms cannot be held liable for this, because they are developed to share information with all people over the world and when you create a certain profile and agree to accept the user terms,  you automatically give permission to make all the information you place public. To avoid awkward situations caused be social media, it is therefore important that users are aware of privacy risks and that they thoroughly consider what information they post on their own profiles and also on others' profiles.