The Impact of Social Media: Security Risks, Privacy & User Awareness

This essay delves into the pervasive influence of social media in modern life, highlighting both its advantages and the significant security risks it introduces. It discusses the vulnerability of personal information on platforms like Facebook and LinkedIn, where users often unknowingly grant extensive data access to third parties. The essay also addresses the prevalence of fake profiles and scams, emphasizing the need for heightened user awareness and caution. Furthermore, it explores the potential for malicious apps to collect sensitive user data and the importance of implementing robust security measures. The author advocates for proactive steps, including installing safety software and educating others about online threats, to mitigate these risks and promote safer social media usage. The essay concludes by stressing the need for users to be vigilant and for software companies to prioritize app security.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA
Social Media
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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In the modern day scenario the technology is developing great deal and this has become
one of the most common and incorrigible part if life of mankind1. However just as there are two
different sides of the same coin there is both the positive and the negative sides there are also
both good and the bad things that are emerging due to this large scale development of the
scientific and the technological apps. I have always been a tech savvy person and I am very
much accustomed in using these apps2. However as time is passing and I am growing up I can
see that there are many evil impacts that is emerging around us. This is really a very alarming
thing. Often there are incidences like the personal pictures of people getting leaked from places.
Often the apps that we install on our phones use our address, age name and many other such
personal information and it gets into the hands of so many different people. This is very
dangerous. One feature that I have lately been observing is that while opening the accounts in the
facebook, I have to enter all the personal details like my name, my age, my address and even my
contact information. Without this information I cannot even create any account over there as
there is this verification process as well3. However the thing that is the matter of concern, is the
fact that there can be some or the hackers out there who will be using all these personal
information for some illegal or unethical activities. There is often this option that I get while
operating and working with these apps. I get this option where the login process asks me if I am
1 Das, Ashish K., Quynh Thi Nguyen, and Susan Thomas. "Entertaining whilst defacing
websites: Psychological games for hackers." Issues in Informing Science and Information
Technology 14 (2017): 219-227.
2 Das, Ashish K., Quynh Thi Nguyen, and Susan Thomas. "Entertaining whilst defacing
websites: Psychological games for hackers." Issues in Informing Science and Information
Technology 14 (2017): 219-227.
3 Gupta, Brij, Dharma P. Agrawal, and Shingo Yamaguchi, eds. Handbook of research on
modern cryptographic solutions for computer and cyber security. IGI Global, 2016.

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giving permission to those apps for getting the access to all the posts that I am sharing on my
facebook. By doing this I am actually giving the permission to many of the companies for getting
the access to all these things that I post on my face book wall4.
It is in this way that I am giving permission to all these companies to spy on me5. They
can post many messages on my wall on my behalf6. This will be very dangerous, as they can also
use this information to post some illegal or some bad messages on the profile. This will surely
not be known to my contacts on the face book and this will be surely not known to any of my
contacts or my friends who are there in my friend list. As a result of this, there will be a very bad
reputation that I will get upon myself. As a result of this, people will think that I have posted all
these information myself7.
The other example is the LinkedIn. I have known this very well as I have grown up. This
is because with age I have completed my degrees and I felt that I have to look for jobs. The best
pace for looking for jobs is the LinkedIn. This is the place where I have the chance and the
opportunity for getting noticed by so many different recruiters. Initially I felt that I will get
noticed by so many recruiters here and I will get a good job. At the same time there are many
4 Bert, Fabrizio, et al. "Smartphones and health promotion: a review of the evidence."
Journal of medical systems 38.1 (2014): 9995.
5 Silva, Leandro Araújo, et al. "Analyzing the Targets of Hate in Online Social Media."
ICWSM. 2016.
6 Taylor, Robert W., Eric J. Fritsch, and John Liederbach. Digital crime and digital
terrorism. Prentice Hall Press, 2014.
7 Hochberg, Katrin, Jochen Kuhn, and Andreas Müller. "Using Smartphones as
Experimental Tools—Effects on Interest, Curiosity, and Learning in Physics Education."
Journal of Science Education and Technology (2018): 1-19.

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disadvantages as well8. I have also seen that there are many fake profiles that are existing here.
These profiles are not owned by any of the real job recruiters. They are the fake profiles that are
created by the fake people and they are mainly used for the purpose of trapping people that is the
job seekers. Often there are many scammers who use the pictures that belong to the profiles of
other people and also use the false information from separate profiles. It is through the use of
these fake pictures and fake information that they can trick the young job seekers like us and can
dupe us so very easily.
The same is the case with the twitter apps. This is because there are many anonymous
bloggers and people who have their accounts in those places. So, they can easily make fake
profile and disturb us the actual users a great deal.
This age is the age of smart phones and apps. Smart phone has become one of the most important
and incorrigible things that is present in the hands of each and every individuals. This smart
phone helps to the individuals in downloading many different apps. The one thing that often gets
ignored is the fact that the individuals ignore the safety of the apps. There are many apps that
come from the unethical sources or from the hackers who carry many bad intentions. They are in
the habit of putting some sounds of very high frequency and they are somehow placed in the
televisions and the web advertisements as well. They contain the ultrasound that can be used for
detecting much personal information of the users. This is also very tough for use to detect t as
these ultrasounds are totally not audible to the human ears.
The other very prominent incident that has made me aware in this aspect is the fact that
some of friends found that their pictures or some of their videos are often posted on many of the
8 Roeber, Bjoern, et al. "Personal data: How context shapes consumers’ data sharing with
organizations from various sectors." Electronic Markets 25.2 (2015): 95-108.

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sites by people that they do not know about. Often some very notorious advertisement agencies
make the use of these pictures in order to focus the same on the internet to promote some very
bad and violent contents. There are so many apps that we are downloading each day9. We hardly
have any time in studying about the background of each and every apps that we are
downloading. There are many apps that are very notorious and carry this ultrasound that can very
easily decode the details of the users who are downloading and using it. Among this important
information these apps can detect the info; like the habits, the location, the name, the address and
many other such important details. I often get disturbed by the unnecessary pop up’s of many
different advertisements that come up on the screen while I am using some particular kinds of
app. This is also because of the usage of these apps that they try to target the same kinds of
customers for some very specific and particular kind of products10.
There is also the chance of apps that are talking to other apps as well. There are so many
different apps on the Google play store that shares the important and sensitive information about
the user. It can happen that I have downloaded a particular kind of an app and I am using the app
for some particular purpose11. There us the chance that this app is transferring some very
important data about me to other unknown and notorious apps. Earlier I was also very attracted
to the usage of many apps like the collage maker, the photo editor apps and many others such as
that often are advertised on the Google play store. These apps contain much advertisement that
pops up as always. It could mean that these apps contain many of the ad libraries and these have
9 Pybus, Jennifer, Mark Coté, and Tobias Blanke. "Hacking the social life of big data." Big
Data & Society 2.2 (2015): 2053951715616649.
10 Spiller, Keith, et al. "Data Privacy: Users’ Thoughts on Quantified Self Personal Data."
Self-Tracking. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 111-124.
11 Lazer, David MJ, et al. "The science of fake news." Science 359.6380 (2018): 1094-
1096.

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the chances of colliding with each other and lead to the sharing of the sensible information from
one app to the other12.
So, is the case with the weather apps as well. They need to know the information about
the proper location of the user in order to give the weather prediction. So, it is recommended that
all the users must be very careful about the apps that they are installing. The software security
company must also be very careful about the maintenance of the apps so that we do not really
suffer from these kinds of incidences.
I will henceforth make sure that I am installing all the required Safety software in my
smart phone so that I do not become a victim of the notorious or the fake app. I will make sure
that I am also being able to make my friends and my known contacts aware about the fake people
that are present on these aops and can cause the harm.
It is a matter of major concern because the information getting spread like this is not at all
a good sign. This information can get leaked into many of the harmful sites and can be used by
so many different harmful and hacking agencies for being used in some bad practices. I will also
be very careful in applying the security settings properly in all the apps that I am downloading
and using.
References
12 Seralidou, Eleni, and Christos Douligeris. "Exploring the potential of smartphones to
support learning in Greece." Interactive Mobile Communication, Technologies and
Learning (IMCL), 2016 International Conference on. IEEE, 2016.

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Bert, Fabrizio, et al. "Smartphones and health promotion: a review of the evidence." Journal of
medical systems 38.1 (2014): 9995.
Das, Ashish K., Quynh Thi Nguyen, and Susan Thomas. "Entertaining whilst defacing websites:
Psychological games for hackers." Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology 14
(2017): 219-227.
Gupta, Brij, Dharma P. Agrawal, and Shingo Yamaguchi, eds. Handbook of research on modern
cryptographic solutions for computer and cyber security. IGI Global, 2016.
Hochberg, Katrin, Jochen Kuhn, and Andreas Müller. "Using Smartphones as Experimental
Tools—Effects on Interest, Curiosity, and Learning in Physics Education." Journal of Science
Education and Technology (2018): 1-19.
Lazer, David MJ, et al. "The science of fake news." Science 359.6380 (2018): 1094-1096.
Pybus, Jennifer, Mark Coté, and Tobias Blanke. "Hacking the social life of big data." Big Data &
Society 2.2 (2015): 2053951715616649.
Roeber, Bjoern, et al. "Personal data: How context shapes consumers’ data sharing with
organizations from various sectors." Electronic Markets 25.2 (2015): 95-108.
Seralidou, Eleni, and Christos Douligeris. "Exploring the potential of smartphones to support
learning in Greece." Interactive Mobile Communication, Technologies and Learning (IMCL),
2016 International Conference on. IEEE, 2016.
Silva, Leandro Araújo, et al. "Analyzing the Targets of Hate in Online Social Media." ICWSM.
2016.

8SOCIAL MEDIA
Spiller, Keith, et al. "Data Privacy: Users’ Thoughts on Quantified Self Personal Data." Self-
Tracking. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2018. 111-124.
Taylor, Robert W., Eric J. Fritsch, and John Liederbach. Digital crime and digital terrorism.
Prentice Hall Press, 2014.
Taylor, Robert W., Eric J. Fritsch, and John Liederbach. Digital crime and digital terrorism.
Prentice Hall Press, 2014.