Ethical Issues with Privacy on Social Media

Ethical Issues with
Privacy on Social Media

Abstract
The privacy ethics on the platform of websites and application that are based on the
social media has emerged and developed on a very interesting topic for the studies
that are based on this by the analyzers or investigators that research and also in the
law and justice departments over the past decade. Although there has been a high
rise and huge developments on the online social media, but then it has also resulted
in rise of several questions on the behavioural change due to the ethical issue. There
is also an ethical obligation on the developers that are in charge of maintaining the
websites. The main aim and objective of this research study is to examine the
behaviour and attitude that is reflected by the users and consumers on the websites
that refers to as the social media platforms and applications. This directly implies on
the matter of the privacy concern of the users and the vulnerability on the social
media platforms. We also objectify the matter and evaluate in the literature research
about the matter on how the user’s private information are misused on the
applications and websites, this phenomenon can be detailed as a general unethical
act.
.
Key Words
Ethical issues, Privacy, Social Media and Administrators.
1

Contents
1. History.........................................................................................................................................4
2. Questions to be researched...................................................................................................5
3. Literature Review......................................................................................................................5
3.1 introduction to confidentiality based concern of the Social Media websites...........................5
3.2 The challenges with ethical issues faced by the privacy on social media websites and
platforms...........................................................................................................................................5
3.3 Trust within the anonymous challenges of privacy concerns on social media platforms.........7
4. Methodology Review................................................................................................................8
Review of Methodologies...............................................................................................................8
4.1 Case Studies.................................................................................................................................8
4.2 Interviews....................................................................................................................................9
4.3. Questionnaires..........................................................................................................................10
4.4 Surveys......................................................................................................................................10
4.5 Focus Group...............................................................................................................................10
4.6 Selected Methodologies...........................................................................................................11
4.6.1 Interview.................................................................................................................................11
4.6.2 Survey.....................................................................................................................................11
5. Conclusion...............................................................................................................................11
6. Project Plan..............................................................................................................................12
7. Ethical Issues..........................................................................................................................12
8. Consent Form..........................................................................................................................12
9. Pilot Interview..........................................................................................................................12
10. Pilot Survey..........................................................................................................................12
11. References............................................................................................................................13
12. Appendices..........................................................................................................................15
Appendix A: Gantt chart on the project plan.................................................................................15
Appendix B: Ethical Review Form...................................................................................................17
Appendix C:Consent Form..............................................................................................................18
Appendix D: Interview....................................................................................................................19
Appendix E: Survey.........................................................................................................................21
2

1. History
It is recorded during the last few years, there have been different and many cases
that is registered and brought to notice where many people were involved in different
social media based application websites have been hacked and exposed by the
hackers. The different social media platforms can now be identified as key locations
for online networking, socializing and reflecting on aspects of daily life with different
people (Azerbaijan, 2017). Hence, it can be obtained from the data that the online
websites of social media networking are comprised of various data that are occurring
and happening at different types of forms. The websites contains various topics,
methods and types of discussion, attitude of the user towards policies and policies,
user behaviour and preferences on those websites. The data is also left in the form
in which users search and view traces on those websites that further enable to
collect the data with the opportunity to further researching in various ambitions within
or without the limitations of ethics by the researchers. Accompanying the
researchers ' opportunity to use or analyze this data is the responsibility to ensure
the highest ethical standards (Debatin, 2011). These standards are not always
followed in several cases, however, according to ethical considerations, and user
data on social media websites have exploded in many ways.
In professional codes of ethics, usually the data is exchanged by the users in terms
of search and preferences. The preferences bring the information of confidentiality
as the user’s right to fundamental development (Turculeţ, 2014). In the social media
platforms the ethical issue on the private information sharing or the privacy concern
is an ethical issue which is not only researched or limited to be researched by the
research domain only. It also has exploded in a huge scale in a very day to day life
and there are many scams that have been reported all around the world. We can
take the example of facebook which can clearly state that over one hundred and
twenty eight million people has visited the website platform in a daily basis for
communicating and sharing their views. This popularity of the social media website
and social media networking can be estimated. Platforms like Facebook are the kind
of social media platforms that are more vulnerable to the unethical exploitation of the
privacy of users. That is why the discussion topic is considered as the key point for
3

investigating further, making it a great point to rely on the privacy of the social media
websites and also the ethics for the use of social media.
2. Questions to be researched
 Are the social media users aware of the social media platform privacy
concerns?
 What does the user realize on the fact of data breach from the collected data
within media platforms like this? What are the considerations on the ethical
viewpoint that can be included in the social media platforms for collection of
data??
.
3. Literature Review
3.1 introduction to confidentiality based concern of the
Social Media websites
The Social Media based application are used and operated in the current modern
state of the society is a continuous phenomenon. Media websites provide users with
easy access to networking for communicating with professionals, friends and family
individuals. This enthusiasm created by the Social media is used and accepted
widely by people for communicating and sharing information on daily and several
topics (Tan, Qin, Kim, & Hsu, 2012). It can be described as an application platform
which has facilitated by content generated by the user that also offers both a
valuable opportunity to collect behavioural data for academic and other analytical
purposes. The researchers as well as the departments concerned. User’s privacy
concerns are described by Moore that the privacy of the data on the websites of
social media platforms which is demonstrated by the control on the data that to in
their own platform which has been done by using social media platforms (Koohang &
Georgia, 2017). Therefore, the key aspect of the concern in today’s world for the
researchers and the domain’s specialists are basically the challenges faced ethically
on the user privacy on social media websites.
4

3.2 The challenges with ethical issues faced by the privacy
on social media websites and platforms
User privacy control is the key concerns regarding the use of online social websites
that are known as the applications of social media websites. There are basically two
major and critical issues that can rise in the Social media platforms in case of
privacy. Most of the websites support software tools that can be used in a number of
ways to record activities of user and also the shared posts on their websites
(Emerald, 2011). Hence, privacy terms can be described and compared to as the
common interpretations of privacy that are referred as the most personal to an
individual user. The maintenance of the issue on privacy on social media platforms
are a complicated and difficult task. The privacy factor that creates on the social
Medias content is generally defined as the consent or a request that is made for an
individual user going through the websites, group or organization to disclose to a
third party what extends its information that is considered private to them. We can
therefore say that users ' privacy is a The personal information is accessed by
selective and controlled method access on the platforms for social medias. This does
not imply the information hiding structure.
Over the past decade, there have been considered and registered issues
relating to the privacy concern of user information that is identified in the social
media websites. The prime issues that are recognized and analyzed comprises of
the collection of information of the user for analytical applications, monitoring of
individual’s activities on internet, aiming the information for personals of the user that
have no context and collecting user data on Social media websites and applications
for analytical purposes by governments and companies. By the technology's fast
advancements, the technology generation poses new challenges that are privacy
related to the user’s privacy (Niiya, Reich, Wang, Mark & Warschauer, 2015).
Digital narratives according to this sort of websites of social media platforms
comprise user private information that is available to the general populace and it can
be manipulated in various ways, from hacking to misapplying that information that
can generate additional barriers for subscribers in the real world. For example, we
can take the case of Facebook, which has protective settings that are more difficult
to contrast with different platforms, implying that a few customers rarely experience
the inconvenience of others. Studies show that social networking platforms with tons
5