When it comes to social media, many of us restrict what we
publicly announce about ourselves on these sites. Some information that users post seems far to
private then anything we would use, but yet there is no distinct boundary about
what is acceptable and what isn’t.
Choosing to opt in on the information that we are sharing can be far
different then what many other users are doing, and choosing to opt out seems
to be an easier (used more) option. Due
to the decision about what is right and what isn’t, different social media
sites have created layout for their sites due to how easy it is to opt out of
sharing information.
Google Plus, a modern social media site, is an
internationally used social media platform that allows you to share and hide
personal information within their site.
Certain aspects within Google Plus such as a photo and your name are
automatically displayed forcing you to opt in with this service. Though you are forced to have an image associated
with your name, Google gives you the option of having a default image that they
created which preserves your privacy.
Privacy protection within Google Plus is a main focus within
the social media platform. For example,
the user can simply “lock” or “hide information” much like they can do on other
sites such as Facebook and Twitter. The
user can choose to block cookies from the Google platform so that their
personal information is not being tracked due to what they are looking at or clicking
on. Another precaution that Google takes
with their social media site is found within the code of the site itself. Google has taken many steps towards
encrypting their service so that outside sources cannot break their wall and
access information that is stored within the site about their users. Though this seems like a typical step with a
social media sites, encrypting the software in a unique way will prevent
hackers from being able to access private information and tearing down the
social media network.
When it comes to the information that the user has control
of on Google Plus, we run into a mild curveball. The user can display pretty much as little or
as much as they want, but Google sometimes adds information to the account without
the user knowing on occasion. Google
accounts for these incidents by stating that the user has the power to delete
whatever they want, so they should be in charge of doing it. This brings up a serious issue with the
connection between private information and the power of the social media
network. Should they dictate what they
feel is acceptable for other users to know about you? Should you be able to
make these decisions?
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