Dissertation: Social Media's Impact on Privacy and Ethical Concerns

This dissertation investigates the impact of social media on privacy violations, examining the limits individuals understand regarding their own and others' privacy. The research analyzes the appropriateness of privacy standards, identifies factors influencing violations, and studies ethical codes and legal frameworks. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative research methods, including questionnaires and data analysis using MS Excel. The findings reveal the significant impact of social media on privacy breaches and the challenges individuals face in protecting themselves. The dissertation concludes with recommendations for improved policies and standards and suggests areas for future research, highlighting the ongoing need to address the ethical and legal complexities of social media in the context of privacy.

An investigation on use of social media for violating privacy of others
Dissertation
Student
[Pick the date]

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Abstract
What is and is not appropriate to publish has been a legal and ethical concern for as long as
there have been newspapers and journalists. It is difficult to find a way to strike a good
balance between privacy - often in situations where people who have committed no crime
may have their lives severely damaged by unwelcome publicity - and defense of democracy
and individual human rights. Many people think that Britain, for instance, has got this
seriously wrong. So, to investigate this, the objectives of the research were formulated-to find
out the limits that individuals understand regarding their own privacy and other‘s privacy
while using social media, to analyse the appropriateness of privacy standards for others in
social media, to determine the factors that influence individuals in violating the privacy of
others, to study the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the use of social
media in violating the privacy of others and to investigate the effectiveness of the policies
and standards in protecting the privacy of people in the context of social media. The data was
analysed with the help of bar graphs that were made in the MS Excel software. They
represented the data which was collected with the help of questionnaires. The calculations
were done on the data, and the functions of the MS Excel software were applied to the
research like ‘if’, ‘count if’ and ‘%’ etc. It was concluded that the social media has a major
impact on the privacy violation of people and there is little that people can do to protect
themselves.
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Acknowledgement
First and foremost, I would like to show my gratitude towards the one who had a significant
contribution to the accomplishment of this research paper: my coordinator, who offered all
her support and guidance in a timely manner. I was extraordinarily fortunate to benefit from
her valuable and in the same time constructive suggestions and I must confess that I would
not have embarked in this academic research without her prior teaching in statistics and
econometrics.
My gratitude goes also to the research participants. Their unlimited and indispensable help
gave me the possibility to progress with my research paper; therefore their co-operation is
indeed appreciated.
I would like to acknowledge the academic and technical support of my institute, particularly
in the award of Bibliographic and External Affairs Research Service offered to the students
by the Central Library.
Finally, I want to express my sincere thanks to all those, who, in one way or another,
contributed to the development and completion of this dissertation.
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Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction.........................................................................................................................5
1.1 Overview......................................................................................................................................5
1.2 Project motivation.......................................................................................................................7
1.3 Project objectives........................................................................................................................8
1.4 Project scope...............................................................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Background and Related Research.....................................................................................10
2.1 Social media...............................................................................................................................10
2.1.1 Negative impacts of social media.......................................................................................10
2.1.2 Positive impacts of social media.........................................................................................11
2.1.3 Legal issues associated with unethical the use of social media..........................................11
2.2 Privacy on social media..............................................................................................................14
2.2.1 Definitions of privacy..........................................................................................................14
2.2.2 The online privacy related to personal information............................................................15
2.2.3 Ways of privacy violation....................................................................................................17
2.3 Relation between social media and privacy violation................................................................17
2.4 Regulations and legal framework for protection of privacy on social media.............................21
Chapter 3: Research Methodology......................................................................................................24
3.1 Research Methods and Framework...........................................................................................24
3.1.1 Quantitative Research........................................................................................................24
3.1.2 Qualitative Research...........................................................................................................25
3.2 Data Generation Methods.........................................................................................................26
3.2.1 Observation........................................................................................................................26
3.2.2 Questionnaires....................................................................................................................27
3.2.3 Documents..........................................................................................................................27
3.2.4 Interviews...........................................................................................................................28
3.3 Data Analysis.............................................................................................................................28
3.4 Research design.........................................................................................................................28
3.5 Participants................................................................................................................................29
3.6 Limitations of study...................................................................................................................30
Chapter 4: Research Analysis and Findings..........................................................................................31
4.1 Findings from quantitative sources............................................................................................31
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4.2 Findings from qualitative sources..............................................................................................42
4.3 Research analysis and results....................................................................................................42
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations....................................................................................49
5.1 Conclusion.................................................................................................................................49
5.2 Recommendations.....................................................................................................................52
5.3 Scope for future research..........................................................................................................52
References...........................................................................................................................................54
Appendix.............................................................................................................................................59
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Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Overview
The thing which is common between your childhood friend, roommate, and your boss and
long distance relatives is that they all are the users of social media and they stay connected to
you via the social networking. There is an online relationship that they have formed. The
information is easy to share on the social networks, and not much effort is required to stay in
touch with the people via the online mode. But, there may be other people too on the social
media who may be looking up to the information that you share with your closed ones. There
are social networking websites on the social media that allows its users to form the
connections and come in relations with the other users over the internet. The information is
stored on the social networks remotely and not on the personal computer. This social media
is used by the people so that they can be in touch with their friends; they can build new
contacts, and other people over the internet who have similar interests and ideas could be
found easily. However, there are many other people on the social media apart from the
known ones who are interested in the information that the users of social media post online.
For example, there are debt collectors, scam artists, thieves, stalkers, companies, etc. who try
to look into the life of others either to know the consumer behavior, market trends, steal their
confidential information or any other reason (Xu, 2015). Even the companies stay very active
on the social media platform because it helps them to collect the data of the customers, and
for creating the networks so that they can tailor made the services as per the needs of the
people and they can also sell their advertisements to the people in the online world.
The users of the social media have the option to mask their identities like they may use a
pseudonym to hide their real name. Some people do this to hide their real identity from the
outside world as they do not like to share their personal data with anyone and others do it for
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violating the privacy of others. They contact them with some other name, become friends
with them on the social media and then steal their confidential information (Adjerid, 2013).
Thus, the violation of privacy is becoming very common on the social media platform. A lot
of cases of frauds on the social media have been observed in past few years. Sometimes the
people use the personal information of the people to get financial gains from them. This is
done by using the information of the person that he has posted online and gathering more and
more information about them so that the theft can be done at the right place and time. They
even steal their passwords, information of their bank accounts and the information that is
stored in the personal computers of the people (Ahmed, 2015). There are ways by which
people access the computers of the users without his consent like they may send a malware
into the system. Malware (malicious software) is a term that describes a wide range of
programs that install on a user’s computer often through the use of trickery (Xu, 2015). It has
the potential to spread quickly on the social networks, and it infects the computer of the user
(Dutton, 2014). The virus also spreads to the contacts of the user and a great amount of
confidential information may be stolen. For example, a company may spread malware into
the competitors’ computer that steals the entire information about the company’s products,
customers, technology, etc.
There are many social networking sites that allow the users to talk about each other's
common interests like they are able to share their photos, interests, job details, and political
views, etc. on the websites. All the people who have access to the internet are able to view
each other's posts, and they are able to discuss with them whatever is going on in their
external environment. Therefore, one of the most debated topics in today’s world is the
privacy concerns that arise due to the use of social media and the social networking. People
have increased their participation in this area dramatically. There are many types of research
in this area, and many journals and articles have talked about these concerns. Everyone talks
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about the increased privacy issues due to the use of social networking sites and the increased
number of crimes due to the use of these websites (Srivastava, 2013). The technology is not
used by the people in a proper way, and some of them are not even aware of the privacy
violations that happen with them or they do to others on the social media. People don’t
refrain themselves from sharing private information on the websites that increases the risk to
their privacy. When the people share sensitive information on the social media, the concerns
related to the privacy increases automatically.
This project will try to determine the impact of social media on the privacy violation of the
people, and it will capture many aspects related to privacy violation like why it happens, how
it happens, what are the regulations to protect the people, etc.
1.2 Project motivation
What is and is not appropriate to publish has been a legal and ethical concern for as long as
there have been newspapers and journalists. It is difficult to find a way to strike a good
balance between privacy - often in situations where people who have committed no crime
may have their lives severely damaged by unwelcome publicity - and defense of democracy
and individual human rights. Many people think that Britain, for instance, has got this
seriously wrong.
But the World Wide Web and social media systems make publishers of us all: what should
we do? Users of Facebook and other social media systems constantly get warned about what
information they give out about themselves. But we also give out information about other
people, especially when posting photographs and video clips. Different people make different
personal choices about how to do this according to their own understanding of the ethical
implications of what they do: for instance, some people refuse to tag individuals in photos on
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Facebook without their explicit permission. People also have different views on how private
their own actions are - what it's legitimate for people to know or say about them.
So, the challenge was to investigate the ethics of showing or talking about other people -
friends, celebrities, the politically powerful, strangers - using social media. What is a
violation of privacy? Do appropriate standards of privacy protection differ for different
people? When and how do circumstances influence what it is reasonable or legitimate for us
to say or show? What is it legitimate and reasonable for us as individuals to do? What is it
legitimate and reasonable for commercial and public organizations to do? How do people
understand the limits of their own privacy, and what others can or ought to be able to say
about them? What influences this? Is any coherent ethical code of conduct or legal
framework to regulate this possible? Are existing policies and standards too lax? Are existing
policies and standards too harsh? To find the answers to all these questions, this research has
been undertaken.
1.3 Project objectives
Objectives:
1. To find out the limits that individuals understand regarding their own privacy and
other‘s privacy while using social media.
2. To analyze the appropriateness of privacy standards for others in social media.
3. To determine the factors that influence individuals in violating the privacy of others.
4. To study the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the use of social
media in violating the privacy of others.
5. To investigate the effectiveness of the policies and standards in protecting the privacy
of people in the context of social media.
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1.4 Project scope
The scope of the project is very wide because this issue of violation of privacy is faced by the
people worldwide. It is not just limited to the UK or any one country, but it a universal issue
and many countries face it. The people have been troubled by the violation of their privacy in
most of the areas. Also, this problem tries to capture that how much is the problem spread
over the areas and how much impact it has made on the lives of people. The main thing that
the project tries to investigate is the violation of privacy of the people due to social media
usage. This investigation will make the readers aware of the negatives of using social media,
the ways by which their privacy gets violated, and they are not even aware of that. Also, the
project will make people aware of the ways by which they can get secured from getting their
privacy violated on the social media. There are many questions that have been asked of the
respondents that try to capture the various aspects related to privacy. These aspects will help
in determining the role of social media in interfering with the privacy of the people.
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Chapter 2: Background and Related Research
2.1 Social media
2.1.1 Negative impacts of social media
Social media can be defined as a relation that is there between networks that consist of many
people all around the world (Leonardi, 20013). There has been a drastic change in the online
world in past ten years due to the invention of the social media. With the social media,
people in the entire world are able to exchange their ideas, their feelings; they even share
their personal information with each other like their educational background, their phone
number and address, their marital status, photographs, etc. The rate at which these things are
exchanges between the people is very astonishing (Treem, 2013). (Kitsantas, 2016) has tried
to capture the effects of social media on the college students in his paper it has been revealed
that almost seventy-three per cent of the students in the USA uses the websites of social
media , and they have developed negative attitudes n themselves from its extensive use. For
example, the students get involved in drinking, and they take drugs, and they also spend
countless hours on the social media websites. The aim of the research conducted by
(Kitsantas, 2016) was to determine the impact of social media on the efficiency of the
students. For doing this, the author tried to find the reason due to which the students utilize
the social networking. The overall result of the study was that the students used social media
for staying connected with friends, for spying their favorite celebrities, for passing time and
for entertainment purposes. It was also found that social media has a negative impact on the
life of the college students in the way that it diverted their mind from studies, made them
procrastinate, and they developed bad habits of drinking and drugging from a very small age.
In the current research, one of the objectives is, “To determine the factors that influence
individuals in violating the privacy of others". For this, the question has been developed in
the questionnaire that what are the reasons due to which people are using social media. This
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question has been taken from the study of (Kitsantas, 2016). The result of this study can also
be related to the current research as when the people in very young age have negative impact
on their lives with the use of social media and they get involved in bad habits, they are more
likely to violate the privacy of others by posting incorrect pictures on social networking sites
and writing or commenting something which they should not.
2.1.2 Positive impacts of social media
(Kalia, 2014) wrote a research paper on social media as an innovative educational tool that
focused on the importance of the social media in the educational sector. The paper talked
about the use of social media in a positive way. The research consists of the positive uses of
the social media like the way it is used as a platform for sharing the news, opinions and views
of the people regarding the things that are happening in the countries all over the world. The
study concluded that the current system of education in all the countries could be changed
with the use of social media. The social media can help the people in learning better, and the
people can also make their work more presentable on the social media. So, it is an effective
tool in learning new things if it is used properly. In the current study, the impact of social
media on privacy violation of the people is emphasized which focus on the negative aspects of
social media only. The study can further be extended towards the positive sides of the social
media. So one of the recommendations for the future research has been taken from (Kalia,
2014) that has motivated in looking at the positive aspects of the social media.
2.1.3 Legal issues associated with unethical the use of social media
Some researchers have talked about the legal issues associated with the use of social media.
The motivation of these researchers came from the fact that millions of the people use social
media for many purposes. So, they should know that what legal issues they may face if they
don’t adhere to the practices and procedures of the social media and they try to do
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something unethical on the social media platform. So, the aim of these researchers was to
spread awareness among the users about the risks related to an unethical use of social media.
(Belmas, 2013) has identified the following legal issues-
1. Sometimes, the employees of a company disclose the confidential information about
his company on the social media like the trade secrets. They may do this via chats,
blogs, social networking sites, etc. this causes a risk to the intellectual property rights
of a company, and the confidential information is threatened. So, to protect this or
avoid this, the companies should make sure that all the people working with it should
be aware of their obligations towards the company ad they are aware of the fact that
they do not have to disclose any confidential information to any outsider. If the
employees don’t take this seriously, they may fall into the legal trap if the company
sues them.
2. On the social media sites, there are people who use the third party trademarks in an
unauthorized manner. They are liable to face the legal liability for infringement of the
trademark, for its dilution and for conducting an unfair competition with the others.
Though there are websites that have developed policies for reporting the infringement
issues but then also people have the threat to get sued if they are doing something
unethical related to the use of trademarks.
3. Similar to the infringement of the trademarks, there is copyright protected works on
the social media websites like the photos, texts, videos, etc. that are used by people
without getting authorization from the owner of the content. When this is done, the
person who copies that work creates an infringement liability for himself. The website
from where the content has been copied may be safe under the copyright law so they
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may get notified when anyone uses their content. Thus the person who has copied the
content may have to face a serious legal liability.
In the current research, the violation of privacy has been investigated due to the use of social
media. So, the above-mentioned points are an important aspect of the study because, in a
way or other, all the above-mentioned points are a source of privacy violations. For example,
the copyrighted material on the social media is the private property of the website or the
person, so if anyone is copying the copyrighted content, he is in the way violating his privacy.
Thus, all these aspects were considered when this current report was made.
(Charbonneau, 2012) has also identified some of the following legal issues-
1. Every business has laws related to securities and regulations, and they try to make
sure that these are not violated in any way. These laws are applicable to the websites
of companies, to the social media platforms, etc. So, the people who talk on the
forums online and other websites, they have to be careful that they are not violating
any law related to the security of the company. If there is any breach in the security
of the company, the person is liable for legal suit by the company.
2. When any material is posted on the social media platform, there is a possibility that
the copyright or the trademarks rights are infringed. In the same way, when anything
is posted on the social media platform without the appropriate release, the privacy of
the people may be violated and the publicity rights of the people may also be violated.
It is unethical to violate the privacy of people. Social media is a way by which people
violates the privacy of others.
3. One of the features of social media that have made it really popular and user-friendly
is the feature of real-time chatting on the online websites. But this feature is used by
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the people for defaming others. While chatting, they may post an unethical content,
and the person who does that has the possibility of receiving a legal action (Murphy,
2013). But unfortunately, such posts and comments are not regarded or considered by
the courts to punish a person. There are very less legal remedies present for such
matters. They do not consider such posts sufficient for the libel purposes.
In the present paper, violation of privacy has been studied in detail. The fact that there are
legal issues concerned with the violation of privacy due to social media is taken from this
paper by (Charbonneau, 2012). Though all the other points mentioned above relates to
privacy only but here in this study, violation of privacy has been studied in general. Also, the
defamation aspect is also taken under the umbrella of privacy violation only. Basically, the
current report considers all the given points under one heading i.e. privacy violation.
2.2 Privacy on social media
2.2.1 Definitions of privacy
Different people have defined privacy in different ways. There are many different types of
privacy like the personal privacy; information privacy etc. But the privacy related to the
social media is the one that is related to the information privacy (Madden, 2012). When
individual claims to control the terms under which his/her personal information is used,
disclosed or acquired, is called information privacy (Avancha, 2012). The personal
information includes the information that an individual can identify. There are boundaries to
privacy of people too. One boundary is the disclosure boundary that enables a person to
manage the issues and tensions between the public and the private. Then another boundary is
the identity boundary that enables a person to manage the self-representation with the
particular audience (Hong, 2013). This means that the behavior of people differs with
different people. The way a person behaves in office may be different from his behavior at
home. The last boundary is the temporal boundary that helps a person in managing his past
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actions and his expectations about the future. The behavior, in this case, may change with
time.
In the current study, the personal information has been given utmost priority, and the
evaluation of the data has been based on the fact that how the social media is impacting the
personal information of people and how much of the personal information is being violated
due to social media.
2.2.2 The online privacy related to personal information
The protection of the personal information on social media is a big challenge in today's
world. The website developers are also concerned about protecting the people's privacy.
There are many researchers who have tried to find the reason behind this, and they have also
recommended ways to protect the people. (Madden, 2012) has written a paper in which they
have suggested that higher levels of privacy could be achieved when the user or the
concerned person is allowed to control his settings related to privacy. Whenever any stranger
is trying to contact the person, he should be able to stop that stranger from contacting him and
in the future too; the person should protect himself from receiving any messages from that
stranger. The authors of this particular paper have put emphasis on designing a policy of
privacy for the users of social media so that their personal information is protected and the
others are not able to misuse their information. The authors of the paper have also tried to
design one model for privacy using the agents of mobile.
In the current study, the respondents were asked that do they have the option to block the
person who is the potential threat to the privacy. This question was taken from the above
study by (Madden, 2012).The relevance of this question was to determine that whether some
way to protect the privacy of people is there on social media or not and if it is there, do
people know about it or not.
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It has been stated by (Child, 2012) that if privacy is lost one time, it becomes very difficult to
re-establish that privacy and protect the personal rights in the future. Thus all kinds of
communication systems must have privacy protection installed especially the mobile systems.
There are profile pages on social media where the user's practice self-representation and they
interact with others and introduce themselves. They trust the data that is placed on their
profile pages like the name they show, the pictures they share, etc. the social media gives the
opportunity to people to share their information with others, and it also allows others to
comment on the things that people share. The internet and social media are so complex that
the web privacy is automatically threatened.
The state of privacy is that condition which allows only limited access to the persons. There
are some rules and policies that the users utilize for achieving a certain level of protection in
their information. There are rules made for protecting the privacy of people, and they differ
as per the requirements and needs (Steeves, 2012). For example, there is location privacy in
which protection is given for the access to the location of the user. But if the inline privacy is
considered, there is no rule or policy to restrict the privacy breach online or on social media.
(Livingstone, 2008) said that there are just solutions that are being developed to protect the
privacy of people. Some of these solutions include the protective technologies, legislative
support, and the social awareness. Among the protective technologies, the control is given to
the access of the information, and it also demands strong authentication of the information
before it can be used by someone else. Their protective technologies have been developed,
and they have been evolved with time (Smith, 2012). The use of encryption is very common
in these technologies, and encryption helps in solving the privacy related concerns in this.
Then social awareness is used when the people are educated about the risks of misuse of the
personal information if the people give their personal information online like their home
address or their phone number. Finally, the privacy can be protected using legislation and the
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agreements with the users can be clarified for protecting the personal information. Thus, law
or the legal framework can be used for protecting the personal information of the people.
2.2.3 Ways of privacy violation
(Korolova, 2010) has identified different ways by which the people generally violate the
privacy of others on the social media. They are:
1. Scraping of data: By scrapping the data of people on the online sites, the activities of
the people can be tracked, and their personal information can be harvested. This is
generally done from the job websites, chats on the social media platform and on the
online forums. There are some companies who work for this, they try to harvest the
information and then they sell it to the other companies. This is nothing but a way to
which the privacy of other people is deteriorated on the social media websites.
2. Leak of personal data via the social media applications: There are some of the social
media websites like the Facebook that is found to leak the personal information of its
users to the companies involved in advertising and other internet tracking companies.
Thus these companies contact these social networking sites and take the private data
of users from them.
3. Social tracking: When any content is shared online with friends, the social widgets
used in it track the information on the social media websites. The cookies are used to
track the users on various sites. The information like shopping behaviour etc. is
known by all and thus the privacy on the online sites is invaded.
The present study is based on the above points as it has tried to understand that what are the
ways by which privacy can be violated and accordingly, the people can be recommended to
protect themselves from getting their and other’s privacy violated.
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2.3 Relation between social media and privacy violation
The world today is very fast moving and is extensively using the internet technology. In this
current era, the social networking has become very famous on the internet and all the people
around the world use it. The generation or the age group that use it most frequently is the
young population and the teenagers (Marwick, 2014). They use this tool of social media and
social networking for communicating with others and for expressing themselves in front of
others. There are many social networking sites that allow the users to talk about each other’s
common interests like they are able to share their photos, interests, job details, and political
views etc. on the websites. All the people who have access to the internet are able to view
each other’s posts and they are able to discuss with them whatever is going on in their
external environment. One of the most debated topics in today’s world is the privacy
concerns that arise due to the use of social media and the social networking. People have
increased their participation in this area dramatically (Gritzalis, 2014). There are many
researches in this area and many journals and articles have talked about these concerns.
Everyone talks about the increased privacy issues due to the use of social networking sites
and the increased number of crimes due to the use of these websites. The technology is not
used by the people in a proper way and some of them are not even aware of the privacy
violations that happen with them or they do to others on the social media (Madejski, 2011).
People don’t refrain themselves from sharing private information on the websites that
increases the risk to their privacy. When the people share sensitive information on the social
media, the concerns related to the privacy increases automatically.
(Claypoole, 2014) has researched on the relation between privacy and social media and he
has said that an anathema to privacy of the social media. The blogging sites give an
opportunity to people to share their views, humour, priorities etc. with others. People get to
learn new things and knew people on the social networking sites. People also follow the
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celebrities on the social media and they try to copy what they do. Thus, all this creates
communities within the social media platform but that is also harm to the privacy of the
people who use it. Especially the pictures that people share on the social media websites are
misused by the people. If an employee in any organisation has visited a beach and she has
posed in bikini on the social media, the next day her picture gets viral in the entire office.
This may be done by any rival in the company who is seeking a chance of promotion or any
other person who does not like that d\lady in the office. Also, there is trawling of the
criminals on the social media websites and they look for the vulnerabilities and the people,
whom they can target easily. Also, the author has said that the people who operate the social
media websites know that they can increase their profits by expanding the willingness of their
users to share their information on their websites. More information is shared, the visitors of
the page increase and they get more sponsorship for their site. Thus, they earn by keeping the
privacy of others at stake. In the current study, it has been determined that social media sites
are not safe for the people to share their information and thus they should not post private
information on these websites. Also, the respondents have been asked that to what extent they
feel secured by using the social media sites. Thus, the violation of privacy has been
investigated in the current research in relation to the use of social media.
(Sánchez, 2012) has written a paper on “social networks are an invasion of privacy”. In his
paper, the author has observed that the relations have been changing between people due to
the developments in the social networks. With just one type of the name on any popular
search engine, the entire history and status of the person can be seen. Sometimes, this data
can be found from the cookies and sometimes people themselves post about their life, work
and other details of their personal life. The author in his research has identified that the
settings related to the privacy of people are not very user-friendly, thus the personal
information about anyone can be obtained unwittingly. Also, he has identified in his research
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that if the settings of privacy on the social media are tight and they help the users in
protecting themselves, then also they and other people are not safe because when they have
more contacts on the social media and they talk to more and more people, it becomes
unmanageable for the people to control their privacy. They forget to or don’t notice the one
person with whom they do not want to share their personal information as he may be a threat
to their privacy. The author of this paper also found that there is very little that the people can
do to hide themselves on the social media. For example, if they are uploading a photograph,
they are not secured at all; they have no choice of hiding it from majority of the people. In the
current study, this paper has been very useful as this have given many insights about the
violation of privacy due to social media. It has talked about the ways by which others can
violate the privacy and how the other people get vulnerable on the social media platform.
(Krasnova, 2009) has studied about the privacy and safety concerns related to the social
networks. The social media sites like Facebook gives chance to people where they can make
friends online and talk to them but the website does not protect people from cyber-bullying. It
has become a platform on which the website pick people for each other like they send
suggestions of friends make them check out the profile of other people. This causes increase
in the bullying practices on the social media platform. The children or adults who don’t have
very nice physical appearance are made fun of, their level of motivation declines and they try
to take revenge by violating the privacy of others. When people use the social networking
sites, they tend to become cruel to each other in the way that they violate the privacy of
others. The people are allowed to visit anybody’s page on the Facebook and they can make
their fun. Thus nobody is protected on the social media from others and strangers as well.
Even if the people find ways by which others cannot look up to them, but still they stalk the
other people by some or the other means. They can do this by making another fake profile, or
through a friend or any other way. So, on the social media, there are many ways by which the
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people can see each other. All the social media websites are not very good tools to
communicate with the others. This study has helped in the current research as the study has
tried to capture that whether the privacy is effective in protecting people or not. That point
was taken from this study only. Here the author says that even if the websites provide privacy
settings but they are not very effective and the currents study has also captured the same
result. As there were settings for protecting the people but then also the ways of protection
were not very effective and people still remained unsecured.
2.4 Regulations and legal framework for protection of privacy on social
media
Findings related to the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the use of
social media in violating privacy of others:
There is a right in UK known as the ‘Right to Privacy’. This right gives the privacy rights
against the misuse of the information about the state and the private persons which is
confidential. The rights given in this right protects the people from all types of social media
activities even the photographs posting, no matter the information underlying it may be
effectively commercial in nature. This right is not mentioned in the constitution of UK, but it
has incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into its national law, which
provides for a limited right of respect towards an individual’s privacy and family life
(Edwards, 2013). In social media, there are also laws related to protection of data and it
enables people to get protection from the information that is posted on the social media
(Adelola, 2015). The ‘Data Protection Act, 1998’ was enacted to take care of the personal
information of the people that was being processed. The personal information of the people is
protected from being disclosed, obtained, held and used (Council, 2015).
In the current research, these have been used to interpret that what are the legal frameworks
available to protect the privacy of people. There have been of major use to analyze the
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22
situation and fulfill one of the objectives of the current research. These have contributed to
the qualitative analysis of the objective.
(Tang, 2008) has identified that the Federal Trade Commission and the attorneys of the states
are the protectors of the privacy of the people in the online world. But the development in
the social media sites has been immense and accordingly, the agencies are not able to protect
the people. They work by asserting claims on the websites that pledge not to gather the
information from other sites but then also they do it. But if the site has developed such
privacy policy that is fake, and they have never attempted to protect the people, then the FTC
cannot do anything because the site did not have any law or policy that they have broken. So
many sites do it. They make fake policies and steal the private information of people for
selling it to other websites. In simple words, it can be said that the private information of the
people and their activities on the social networking sites are not regulated by FTC. The deep
intrusions into the privacy of people can be done online. Thus, it can be said that the FTC is
not effective in protecting the people online.
(Rainie, 2013) has identified some of the laws that help in protecting the information of the
user online. They are-
1. Electronic Communications Privacy Act, 1986: In this the information of the users of
internet is stored on the server and the government and other law enforcement
agencies are allowed to access it via subpoena. This law enables the agencies to find
out that who was trying to steal the information from the websites and the government
can easily access the data stored on the servers of the company by using a search
warrant.
2. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): This act prohibits the children
under the age of 13 years to limit their collection of data and the way they use it. Also,
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there are websites whose content is not relevant for children, so they don't allow
children to access the content of those websites.
In the current research, these have not been incorporated because they are not related to the
country the UK and the acts or the laws are also not very effective because they do not
regulate the privacy in a proper way, and they are not very effective too. For example, if the
children are not allowed to access few websites, so the children have an option of making a
fake adult profile and then access the websites. So, this cannot be regulated by these laws.
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Chapter 3: Research Methodology
Research objectives:
1. To find out the limits that individuals understand regarding their own privacy and
other‘s privacy while using social media.
2. To analyze the appropriateness of privacy standards for others in social media.
3. To determine the factors that influence individuals in violating the privacy of others.
4. To study the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the use of social
media in violating the privacy of others.
5. To investigate the effectiveness of the policies and standards in protecting the privacy
of people in the context of social media.
3.1 Research Methods and Framework
The study tries to investigate that how the social media violates the privacy of others. The
main purpose of this study is to determine the impact of social media usage on the privacy
violation of others. For conducting the research in a successful manner, various methods are
needed to be applied, and a framework also needs to be developed that guides the flow of the
research work. The conceptual framework of the project has been developed on the basis of
the background research done and the literature that has been reviewed (Taylor, 2015). The
main aim of this chapter is to explain the key factors, ways, tools used for conducting the
research in an effective manner.
3.1.1 Quantitative Research
In the quantitative research, the objective measurements of the data have been done, and it
has been analyzed mathematically and statistically with the help of questionnaires and
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25
surveys. Various computational techniques have been used to analyze the collected data. The
tool that has been used to collect quantitative data is the questionnaire. A fourteen questions
questionnaire was developed, and it was distributed among 100 people who were selected
randomly. These were the users of the social media, and their responses were captured in the
questionnaire. The data collected through the questionnaire was quantitative, and thus it was
analyzed using MS Excel software where it has been represented using the tables, graphs,
charts, etc. The quantitative research makes the analysis more worthy because the
representation helps in explain the actual analysis; it is more presentable and reliable. The
first-hand information is original and helps in determine the objectives in a proper way. The
data which is collected using questionnaire is also called as primary data. This data collects
the information related to the particular aims or purposes of the study (Fowler, 2013). Since
the data is collected by the researcher himself, so the data is more reliable and latest too.
3.1.2 Qualitative Research
In the qualitative research, the subjective data is available. It is subjective because the
research was done in the past and it may have changed till the time the current research is
carried out. The application of the qualitative research is not valid forever because when
research is done, there are other researchers conducted to nullify the findings of the previous
research or some new things get introduced that completely nullifies the purpose of the
previous research. For example, the current research is being done on the impact of social
media in privacy violation of others. So, maybe after a few others, some software comes up
that protects all the people in the world from the social media privacy issues. So, at that time,
the current research will not hold any significance.
But in the current research, the qualitative research was very important to satisfy the
objective, “To study the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the use of
social media in violating the privacy of others” is fulfilled from the result that the country has
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some laws, regulations, rights and legal framework to protect the people from privacy
violation in the social media. These have been used to regulate the use of social media in
violating the privacy of others (Ott, 2015). But then also, there are issues in this area, and the
people are not satisfied by the regulations, etc. That is why they keep on complaining about
such issues and the authorities also get reports on such matters. Briefly, it can be said that the
legal framework is established for protecting people, but it is not much effective. For coming
to this conclusion, the background research was done, and the laws and the legal framework
had to be identified.
Qualitative research not only helps in coming to some kind of conclusion, but it also helps in
finding the variables of study, establishing the objectives and finding the future scope of the
study.
3.2 Data Generation Methods
For collecting the data in any research, there are many methods available. But effective
utilization of the methods is important. All the methods are suited for some specific types of
researches and selection of the appropriate method is very important to conduct the research.
3.2.1 Observation
In this method, the researcher collects data by observing the behavior, needs, preferences,
body postures, etc. of the respondents. This method is useful when the sample required is
small, and the researcher has ample time to observe each and every respondent and judge his
behavior towards a particular thing. This method is used in this study not for collecting the
data but for establishing the objectives of the study. It was observed that a large number of
people were complaining about the online privacy issues, so the research was carried out by
observing the difficulties that people were facing due to the use of social media.
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3.2.2 Questionnaires
This method of data collection has been the major tool in the current study. The questionnaire
was developed consisting of fourteen questions that aimed to satisfy the objectives of the
study. The questionnaire was reliable and valid as Cronbach’s Alpha was tested in SPSS on
the data collected and it came out to be 0.9 which means that the reliability of the
questionnaire was excellent, and it was not the invalid questionnaire. The questionnaire was
distributed to 100 people who responded to the questions mentioned in it, and thus data was
collected for analysis. The responses of the people to the questionnaire were collected for
academic purpose only, and the identity of the respondents was not revealed (Bryman, 2015).
First-hand information or the quantitative data was collected in this study using the
questionnaires.
3.2.3 Documents
Various documents related to the research study were studied. These documents were related
to the background research of this topic, and they formed the basis of the required literature
for the current topic. The documents helped in satisfying one of the objectives of the study
that was “To study the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the use of
social media in violating the privacy of others”. For this, the previous documents were
studied and analyzed, and the legal framework was found from the documents only. The
documents not only helped in coming to some kind of conclusion, but it also helped in
finding the variables of study, establishing the objectives and finding the future scope of the
study. The documents were used to understand the perceptions, values, behavior of the people
that use the social media and their privacy gets violated. The context of the research was
understood better when the documents were read as the documents had captured the need and
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requirements of the study. The documents also helped in developing the parameters like the
objectives, respondents, etc. for conducting the quantitative study.
3.2.4 Interviews
The interviews are another method of data collection, but this method has not been used in
this study. Here the interviews were not required to be conducted because the personal
opinions of the people were not required to be collected. Instead, a generalized idea was to be
developed.
3.3 Data Analysis
The data was analyzed with the help of bar graphs that were made in the MS Excel software.
They represented the data which was collected with the help of questionnaires. The
calculations were done on the data, and the functions of the MS Excel software were applied
to the research like ‘if’, ‘count if’ and ‘%’ etc.
3.4 Research design
The current study is descriptive in nature because it has attempted to answer questions like
how, who, what, where, etc. The descriptive study in the present research focuses on
explaining that what exists in the context of the variables in a given situation. The subject
under whom the study is happening is determined in the descriptive research. The
environment in which the research is being conducted is very natural ad it does not change.
True experiments are conducted that determines the normal behavior of the given subject and
makes the data eligible for analysis. For the quantitative measurements to take place in the
research, the descriptive study is required, and a general overview is formed by this study that
helps in giving the valuable pointers for which the variable of the study can be tested and
analyzed. When the limitations of the research are understood by the researcher, then he is
able to focus on it in a proper manner, and this attribute is provided by descriptive study only.
The descriptive study helps in yielding a rich data for the study and accordingly the required
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recommendations and improvements can be mad in the study. Though the descriptive study
does not give a definite answer to the problems, but it helps in approving or disapproving the
hypothesis of the study. In the current study, no hypothesis has been formed because the
literature and the background research showed that the privacy issues were very prominent,
so there was very little doubt that social media do not protect the privacy of people. So, in
this type of study, there was no hypothesis required. Though this descriptive study depends
heavily on the observation methods but the variables that were taken in this study were not
required to be measured through observation. For that questionnaire was definitely required.
The principle thought behind the current study that made it a descriptive study was that the
attitude of the users of the social media could be characterized. The nature of the study and
the data is quantitative, and the respondents have to respond to the questions. Their responses
are based on the sections in the questionnaire that is pre-characterised (Rossi, 2013). Also, in
the present study, the researcher has tried to follow a systematic methodology for
investigating the impact of social media on violating the privacy of people. In this study, the
social media practices have investigated that impacts the privacy of the users of social media.
3.5 Participants
There is no particular geographical area in which the people are limited or from where the
sample is taken, the participants for this research have been spread to many areas of UK. This
project has a wider scope because the problem of the privacy in social media is not limited to
a particular set of people, but it is spread to all the people in the entire world. The participants
were involved in the study via the online mode. They were contacted via the internet and the
questionnaires were sent to them on internet only. The participants were picked randomly.
The link to the questionnaire was sent to many people via social media only, and those who
filled the forms at the earliest with complete responses were included as samples in the study
(Saris, 2014). This method was advantageous in this type of study because the spread of the
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population was very wide and the most convenient way to contact the people was the internet
and social media sites.
3.6 Limitations of study
1. The size of the sample was small as per the topic of research. It could have captured more
people as this problem is faced by almost all the users of social media and there are millions
of them all over the world.
2. Since the questionnaires were made to get filled on the internet so the personal contact
with the respondents was lacking. This declined the opportunity for the researcher to explain
the questions or to clarify any doubts of the respondents.
3. The time taken for the respondents to answer the questions was very long. This took
number of days to complete the data collection process.
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Chapter 4: Research Analysis and Findings
4.1 Findings from quantitative sources
Why do you use social media?
To stay connected
with friends To stay connected
with areas/people of
interests like
celebrities, film
industry, political
industry etc.
To express my views,
opinions, thoughts,
knowledge about
some current issue
To spy in the lives of
others For passing time
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
10%
30% 30%
25%
5%
It is found in the research that the main reasons due to which people use social media are:
30% people use it for staying connected with areas/people of interests like celebrities, film
industry, and political industry, etc. and 30% people use it for expressing their views,
opinions, thoughts, knowledge about some current issue. Apart from this, there are 25% of
the respondents who use social media for spying in the lives of others, 10% use it for staying
connected with their friends, and only 5% use it for passing their time.
How often people use the social media platform for posting something or for commenting on
someone?
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Everyday Many times in
a week Occasionally Very rarely Never
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
33%
50%
10%
5% 2%
It is found in the research that 50% of the respondents in the study use the social media
platform for posting something or for commenting on someone many times in a week. 33%
of the respondents in the study use the social media platform for posting something or for
commenting on someone every day. Only 10% of the people under the study use it
occasionally, 5% says that they use it very rarely, and 2% of them never use the social media
platform for posting something or for commenting on someone.
Are you aware of the privacy settings of your social media accounts and its use?
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33
Yes No Not very sure
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
45%
25%
30%
It is found in the research that most of the people i.e. 45% of them are aware of the privacy
settings of their social media accounts and its use. 30% of them are not very sure about the
privacy settings i.e. they are not sure whether they are aware of the privacy settings of their
social media accounts and its use or not. 25% of the respondents are not at all aware of the
privacy settings of their social media accounts and its use.
Do you use the privacy settings in controlling and monitoring the posts you share or the
people you follow?
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34
Yes No Sometimes
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
50%
30%
20%
It is found that 50% of the people use privacy settings in controlling and monitoring the posts
that they share or the people they follow. 30% of the people do not use privacy settings in
controlling and monitoring the posts that they share or the people they follow. Only 20% of
the people sometimes use privacy settings in controlling and monitoring the posts that they
share or the people they follow.
In what ways do you control the privacy related settings of your social media accounts?
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4 40%
10%
20%
30%
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35
It is found in the study that 40% of the people control the privacy related settings of their
social media accounts by adjusting the settings for controlling the other people's access to
their account and on the things that they post or publish. 30% of the people just know how
to control the privacy settings of their social media accounts. 20% of them are not aware of
the procedure to control the privacy settings of their social media accounts. Only 10% of the
people are aware of the privacy settings, but they don't bother about controlling them.
When you use your social media accounts like the Facebook account or the Twitter account,
do you make your posts visible to all the users of the internet?
Yes No Sometimes
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
50%
15%
35%
It is found that when people use their social media accounts like the Facebook account or the
Twitter account, 50% of them make their posts visible to all the users of internet, 35% of
them sometimes make their posts visible to all the users of internet and 15% of them does not
make their posts visible to all the users of internet.
Do you take permission of your friends, followers or anybody (with whom you share
something or talk something) before presenting them on social media?
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36
Yes No Sometimes
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
5%
60%
35%
It is found that 60% of the people do not take permission of their friends, followers or
anybody (with whom they share something or talk something) before presenting them on
social media. 35% of the people sometimes take permission of their friends, followers or
anybody (with whom they share something or talk something) before presenting them on
social media and only 5% of them take permission of their friends, followers or anybody
(about whom they share something or talk something) before presenting them on social
media.
Do you think that you should take permission from your friends, followers or anybody (about
whom you share something or talk something) before presenting them on social media?
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37
Yes No
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
40%
60%
It is found that 60% of the people do not feel the need to take permission of their friends,
followers or anybody (about whom they share something or talk something) before
presenting them on social media. But 40% of the people feel that they should take
permission from their friends, followers or anybody (about whom they share something or
talk something) before presenting them on social media.
When your friend/follower shares something about you or anybody else on the social media,
do you or that person has the ability to control it?
Yes No To an extent
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
30% 30%
40%
37

38
40% of the respondents say that when their friend/follower shares something about them or
anybody else on the social media, to an extent they ability to control it. 30% say that they
have the ability to control it, and 30% say that they don't have the ability to control it.
When your friend/follower shares something about you or anybody else on the social media,
do you or that person has the right to limit that post or report it or mark it as spam?
Yes No Sometimes
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
50%
20%
30%
It is found in the study that 50% of the people feel that they have the right to limit the post or
report it or mark it as spam when their friend/follower shares something about them or
anybody else on the social media. 30% of the people feel that they sometimes have the right
to limit the post or report it or mark it as spam when their friend/follower shares something
about them or anybody else on the social media. Only 20% of the respondents’ people feel
that they do not have the right to limit the post or report it or mark it as spam when their
friend/follower shares something about them or anybody else on the social media.
When your friend/follower shares something about you or anybody else on the social media,
do you or that person has the option to block that friend/follower?
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39
Yes No
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
90%
10%
It is found in the study that 90% of the people say that when their friend/follower shares
something about them or anybody else on the social media, then they have the option to block
that friend/follower. But 10% of the people say that when their friend/follower shares
something about them or anybody else on the social media, then they do not have the option
to block that friend/follower.
Why do you or other people try to violate the privacy of others?
For fun
For disturbing them
For entertainment
For judging them
For taking revenge
For insulting them
For interfering in their personal lives
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
25%
10%
5% 2%
30%
2%
26%
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40
When people were asked that why they or other people try to violate the privacy of others,
30% of them responded that they do it for taking revenge from others, 26% do it for
interfering in the lives of others, 25% of the people do it for fun, 10% people do it for
disturbing others, 5% do it for entertainment, 2% tries to judge others, so they violate their
privacy, and 2% of them do it for insulting the other people.
When you complain about your privacy violation to the concerned authority, do you get
heard, and your problem gets resolved?
Yes No Sometimes
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
30%
40%
30%
When people complain about their privacy violation to the concerned authority, 40% of them
say that they don't get heard, and their problem doesn't get resolved. 30% responded that they
get heard, and their problem gets resolved, and 30% of them say that they get heard, and their
problem gets resolved sometimes.
How much time does the authority take to resolve your issue?
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41
One day One week One month More than a
month
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
2%
50%
20%
28%
It is found that 50% of the people say that it takes one week for the authority to resolve their
issue, 28% say that it takes more than a month week for the authority to resolve their issue,
20% say that it takes a month for the authority to resolve their issue and only 2% say that it
takes a day for the authority to resolve their issue.
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4.2 Findings from qualitative sources
Findings related to the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the use of
social media in violating privacy of others
There is a right in the UK known as the ‘Right to Privacy.' This right gives the privacy rights
against the misuse of the information about the state and the private persons which are
confidential. The rights given in this right protects the people from all types of social media
activities even the photographs posting, no matter the information underlying it may be
effectively commercial in nature. This right is not mentioned in the constitution of UK, but it
has incorporated the European Convention on Human Rights into its national law, which
provides for a limited right of respect towards an individual's privacy and family life
(Edwards, 2013). In social media, there are also laws related to protection of data and it
enables people to get protection from the information that is posted on the social media
(Adelola, 2015).
The ‘Data Protection Act, 1998’ was enacted to take care of the personal information of the
people that was being processed. The personal information of the people is protected from
being disclosed, obtained, held and used (Council, 2015).
4.3 Research analysis and results
1. The findings show that mainly, the people use social media for staying connected with
areas/people of interests like celebrities, film industry, and political industry, etc. and for
expressing their views, opinions, thoughts, knowledge about some current issue. So, it
can be analyzed that people like to look into the world around them, and they like to
know that what is happening in the industries around them especially the film and
political world. Also, they like to share their views on the current issues because they
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43
have the freedom of speech, and they want the world to know that what are their opinions
and views. They also encourage others to talk about the issues and give their views so
that they can hold a debate on a topic and talk about it in detail. It has also been found
that some people use social media for spying in the lives of others, they do this because
they like to comment on the life and instances of others. There were very few people who
wanted to stay connected with their friends, and few of them used it for passing their
time. This means that people are not using media for their personal things like chatting
with friends or for leisure; they are just using it to peep in the lives of others and for
interfering with their issues. Though this is not incorrect in the sense that people should
give their opinion and views if they feel something but that should not lead to insulting
someone, or it should not breach the privacy of others. That is considered unethical when
people do this, and they misuse the social media for breaching the privacy of others.
2. The findings show that most of the respondents in the study use the social media platform
for posting something or for commenting on someone many times in a week. This shows
that the people are very active on the social media platforms, and they use their social
media accounts very extensively. Even there were people in large number who post
something on the platform of social media daily. This shows that social media has
become very popular among the people, and it is used on a regular basis by the people.
The people comment on the social media sites in a regular manner and they like to talk
on these websites very much. They have not set any limits on using social media for
themselves; they are using it as and when they feel to. There are very few people who are
not using social media on regular basis. One reason of this may be that they are of an
older generation, and they are not very tech savvy to use such things, or they may just not
be interested in becoming social.
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3. The findings show that most of the people are aware of the privacy settings of their social
media accounts and its use. This means that they know about the privacy of social media
accounts, and they know how to use it. The awareness about privacy settings is there in
the people, and they are well-equipped to use it. There were few people who were not at
all aware of the privacy settings of their social media accounts and its use. This may be
due to the reason that they were not properly educated or may be because they were
indulged in the breach of privacy of others, so they never bothered to learn about the
privacy settings.
4. The findings show that most of the people use privacy settings in controlling and
monitoring the posts that they share or the people they follow. These are not indulged in
violation of privacy of others as they know how to limit the audience of their post. But
there are many other people who do not use privacy settings in controlling and
monitoring the posts that they share or the people they follow. They are the ones who
don't know their limits while using social media and they cause privacy violation in
social media accounts of others. They do something and others suffer due to that, for
example, they share some post or photo, and it is visible to everyone on the internet, so
there is the risk to the privacy of others. There are other people also, who sometimes use
privacy settings in controlling and monitoring the posts that they share or the people they
follow. This shows that they use these settings only when they feel that some post is not
for everyone on the internet, but these people may also cause a threat to the privacy of
others.
5. The findings show that most of the people control the privacy related settings of their
social media accounts by adjusting the settings for controlling the other people's access to
their account and on the things that they post or publish. This shows that they are
concerned about their privacy a lot. They don't want others to peep in their personal lives
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45
and comment on what they share, but this does not confirm that they feel the same for the
others too. There are other people too who don't care about the control on the privacy
settings, and they are not even aware of the settings.
6. The findings show that most of the people make their posts visible to all the users of the
internet. This means that they have no limits on the use of social media. They are open
to all the people, and they allow others to violate their privacy. They are very few people
who do not do this.
7. There are many people in the study who do not take permission of their friends, followers
or anybody (with whom they share something or talk something) before presenting them
on social media. This shows that they are not concerned about their privacy, and they
don't leave them secured. They are giving others a chance to breach and violate the
privacy of their friends, and they themselves are doing the same if they are not taking
permission. Very few of them take permission of their friends, followers or anybody
(with whom they share something or talk something) before presenting them on social
media. These are the ones who are concerned about privacy violation issues in social
media, but they are very limited in number.
8. Earlier it was found that people don't take permission of their friends, followers or
anybody (about whom they share something or talk something) before presenting them
on social media, but here it is found that they don't even feel the need to do so. Most of
the people under this study do not feel the need to take permission of their friends,
followers or anybody (with whom they share something or talk something) before
presenting them on social media. This shows that the level of awareness among people is
less, and the concern about privacy issues is also less. Though there are people who still
feel that they should take permission from their friends, followers or anybody (with
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whom they share something or talk something) before presenting them on social media.
But these are less in number than the former ones.
9. It is difficult for most of the people to control what their friend/follower shares
something about them or anybody else on the social media. This means that they have
less control over their security. It is very little that they can do to control their own
privacy. Thus, there is a threat to the privacy of people. But few of the people also feel
that they have the ability to control it and don't have the ability to control it. The people
are not safe in the use of social media of they cannot control their own privacy settings
and the posts about them that others share.
10. The study shows that a large number of the people feel that they have the right to limit
the post or report it or mark it as spam when their friend/follower shares something about
them or anybody else on the social media. This means that even if something is posted or
written against them, they can rectify it and remove it, or they don't like it, or it breaches
their privacy on social media. Others said that they sometimes have the right which
means that they cannot always limit what others post because others may not have
allowed us to look at their post but they have the right to post anything about anyone.
Few people also feel that they do not have the right to limit the post or report it or mark it
as spam when their friend/follower shares something about them or anybody else on the
social media. This is due to the same reason that they may not have access to other
people's accounts.
11. A positive thing that was found related to security on the social media is that most of the
people, almost 90% of the people say that when their friend/follower shares something
about them or anybody else on the social media, then they have the option to block that
friend/follower. This means that the people have the option to get secured from the
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person forever, but it may happen that the person violates the privacy by making a fake
account or by any other means. So, still, the privacy may be violated due to the use of
social media.
12. The main factors due to which people violate other's privacy is that they do it for taking
revenge from others, 26% do it for interfering in the lives of others, 25% of the people do
it for fun, 10% people do it for disturbing others, 5% do it for entertainment, 2% tries to
judge others, so they violate their privacy and 2% of them do it for insulting the other
people. This means that jealousy, competition, and negative thoughts make people
violate others privacy and some people like to know what others are doing, and they are
interested in disturbing their personal lives, so they violate their privacy. Some do it for
fun as they find it funny to disturb others and bother them.
13. Most of the people find the authorities to be incompetent to resolve their issues. This
may be due to the fact they might have had a bad experience in the past, and they might
have complained it to the authorities earlier, but they were not heard. This shows that
even if their privacy is violated, they don't get justice and resolution of the same. But
there were few people too who were positive about the resolution of their problems. This
may be due to their experience was good in the past. So, the people who got their issues
resolved in the past found the authorities to be competent enough to solve their problems
and vice-versa.
14. The respondents say that the authorities take one week to resolve their issue, though the
time taken is not long but in some cases, the issue might be urgent so, in that case, one
week is a long time. The issue should get resolved as per the urgency of the work. But in
some cases, the authorities even take a month to resolve their issue. This response was
based on the experience of the respondents.
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15. Lastly, it has been found that the country has some laws, regulations, rights and legal
framework to protect the people from privacy violation in the social media. These have
been used to regulate the use of social media in violating the privacy of others. But then
also, there are issues in this area, and the people are not satisfied by the regulations, etc.
That is why they keep on complaining about such issues and the authorities also get
reports on such matters.
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Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
5.1 Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that all the objectives of the study are
satisfied in this study in the following way:
The objective that “To find out the limits that individuals understand regarding their own
privacy and other‘s privacy while using social media” is fulfilled from the findings that most
of the people are aware of the privacy settings of their social media accounts and its use, they
know about the privacy of social media accounts, and they know how to use it. Though most
of the people use privacy settings in controlling and monitoring the posts that they share, or
the people they follow and they are not indulged in violation of privacy of others as they
know how to limit the audience of their post. But there are many other people who do not use
privacy settings in controlling and monitoring the posts that they share or the people they
follow. The majority of the people control the privacy related settings of their social media
accounts by adjusting the settings for controlling the other people's access to their account
and on the things that they post or publish. This shows that they are concerned about their
privacy a lot. Then, most of the people make their posts visible to all the users of the internet.
This means that they have no limits on the use of social media. There are many people in the
study who do not take permission of their friends, followers or anybody (about whom they
share something or talk something) before presenting them on social media. This shows that
they are not concerned about their privacy, and they don't leave them secured. They are
giving others a chance to breach and violate the privacy of their friends, and they themselves
are doing the same if they are not taking permission and that they don't even feel the need to
do so. Briefly, the people have very fewer limits on the understanding of their privacy and
other's privacy on social media.
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The second objective “To analyze the appropriateness of privacy standards for others in
social media” is fulfilled from the findings that it is difficult for most of the people to control
what their friend/follower shares something about them or anybody else on the social media.
This means that they have less control over their security. The study shows that a large
number of the people feel that they have the right to limit the post or report it or mark it as
spam when their friend/follower shares something about them or anybody else on the social
media. This means that even if something is posted or written against them, they can rectify it
and remove it, or they don't like it, or it breaches their privacy on social media. 90% of the
people say that when their friend/follower shares something about them or anybody else on
the social media, then they have the option to block that friend/follower. This means that the
people have the option to get secured from the person forever, but it may happen that the
person violates the privacy by making a fake account or by any other means. Briefly, the
privacy standards are appropriate as the online websites have given many privacy securities
to the people but then also the standards are capable of getting violated.
The third objective "To determine the factors that influence individuals in violating privacy
of others" is satisfied from the result that mainly, the people use social media for staying
connected with areas/people of interests like celebrities, film industry, and political industry,
etc. and for expressing their views, opinions, thoughts, knowledge about some current issue.
It has also been found that some people use social media for spying in the lives of others,
they do this because they like to comment on the life and instances of others. There were very
few people who wanted to stay connected with their friends, and few of them used it for
passing their time. This means that people are not using media for their personal things like
chatting with friends or for leisure; they are just using it to peep in the lives of others and for
interfering with their issues. Though this is not incorrect in the sense that people should give
their opinion and views if they feel something but that should not lead to insulting someone,
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or it should not breach the privacy of others. That is considered unethical when people do
this, and they misuse the social media for breaching the privacy of others. The main factors
due to which people violate other's privacy is that they do it for taking revenge from others,
26% do it for interfering in the lives of others, 25% of the people do it for fun, 10% people do
it for disturbing others, 5% do it for entertainment, 2% tries to judge others, so they violate
their privacy and 2% of them do it for insulting the other people. This means that jealousy,
competition, and negative thoughts make people violate others privacy and some people like
to know what others are doing, and they are interested in disturbing their personal lives, so
they violate their privacy. Some do it for fun as they find it funny to disturb others and bother
them. Briefly, the reason for violating the privacy is that the people try to defame others by
disrespecting them, and they do it for taking some kind of revenge from the.
The fourth objective “To study the ethical code of conduct or legal framework to regulate the
use of social media in violating the privacy of others” is fulfilled from the result that the
country has some laws, regulations, rights and legal framework to protect the people from
privacy violation in the social media. These have been used to regulate the use of social
media in violating the privacy of others. But then also, there are issues in this area, and the
people are not satisfied by the regulations, etc. That is why they keep on complaining about
such issues and the authorities also get reports on such matters. Briefly, it can be said that the
legal framework is established for protecting people, but it is not much effective.
The last objective, "To investigate the effectiveness of the policies and standards in
protecting the privacy of people in the context of social media" is satisfied from the findings
that most of the people find the authorities to be incompetent to resolve their issues. This may
be due to the fact they might have had a bad experience in the past and they might have
complained it to the authorities earlier, but they were not heard. This shows that even if their
privacy is violated, they don't get justice and resolution of the same. But there were few
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people too who were positive about the resolution of their problems. This may be due to their
experience was good in the past. So, the people who got their issues resolved in the past
found the authorities to be competent enough to solve their problems and vice-versa. The
respondents say that the authorities take one week to resolve their issue, though the time
taken is not long but in some cases, the issue might be urgent so, in that case, one week is a
long time. The issue should get resolved as per the urgency of the work. But in some cases,
the authorities even take a month to resolve their issue. This response was based on the
experience of the respondents. Briefly, it can be said that people are not happy with the
resolution of their privacy related complaints; they feel that the time taken for resolving the
issues by the authorities is very long.
5.2 Recommendations
The report has identified that there are various issues related to the privacy of people on the
social media. It is recommended that people should not reveal the personal information about
them in an inadvertent manner. The people should use the pseudonym rather than use their
real name on the websites that they think are not safe to access. The users of the social media
are recommended to turn on the cookie notices in their web browser, and they should use the
software for managing cookie or the infomediaries. Though many cookies are useful but, they
can be innocuous too as they can be used by the privacy breakers for mining the private data
of the users. The users must take care when they send their information to any outside person,
for example, the information that is sent on the e-mail should be carefully sent, and no
confidential information should be shared on the e-mails. Also, when spam messages are
received on the e-mail, the people should not reply to those spam e-mails.
5.3 Scope for future research
In the current study, the impact of social media on privacy violation of the people is
emphasized which focus on the negative aspects of social media only. The study can further
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be extended towards the positive sides of the social media. In the present paper, violation of
privacy has been studied in general. The defamation aspect is also taken under the umbrella
of privacy violation only. Basically, the current report considers all the given points under
one heading i.e. privacy violation. So, the specific aspect of privacy should be studied like the
defamation, infringement of copyright or trademark, etc. This will help in identifying that
which aspect of privacy is most harmful and causes the greatest risk to the privacy of the
people on social media.
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Appendix
The responses will be used for academic purpose only and the identity of the respondents will
be kept confidential.
Name of respondent
Occupation
Age
Gender
1. Why do you use social media?
a. To stay connected with friends
b. To stay connected with areas/people of interests like celebrities, film industry,
political industry etc.
c. To express my views, opinions, thoughts, knowledge about some current issue
d. To spy in the lives of others
e. For passing time
2. How often do you use the social media platform for posting something or for
commenting on someone?
a. Everyday
b. Many times in a week
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c. Occasionally
d. Very rarely
e. Never
3. Are you aware of the privacy settings of your social media accounts and its use?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Not very sure
4. Do you use the privacy settings in controlling and monitoring the posts you share or
the people you follow?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Sometimes
5. In what ways do you control the privacy related settings of your social media
accounts?
a. The settings are adjusted for controlling the other people’s access on my account
and on the things that I post or publish.
b. I know about the settings related to privacy but I don’t bother about controlling
them.
c. I am not aware about the procedure to control the privacy settings of my social
media accounts.
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d. I know how to control the privacy related settings of my social media accounts.
6. When you use your social media accounts like the Facebook account or the Twitter
account, do you make your posts visible to all the users of internet?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Sometimes
7. Do you take permission of your friends, followers or anybody (about whom you share
something or talk something) before presenting them on social media?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Sometimes
8. Do you think that you should take permission of your friends, followers or anybody
(about whom you share something or talk something) before presenting them on
social media?
a. Yes
b. No
9. When your friend/follower shares something about you or anybody else on the social
media, do you or that person has the ability to control it?
a. Yes
b. No
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c. To an extent
10. When your friend/follower shares something about you or anybody else on the social
media, do you or that person has the right to limit that post or report it or mark it as
spam?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Sometimes
11. When your friend/follower shares something about you or anybody else on the social
media, do you or that person has the option to block that friend/follower?
a. Yes
b. No
12. Why do you or other people try to violate the privacy of others?
a. For fun
b. For disturbing them
c. For entertainment
d. For judging them
e. For taking revenge
f. For insulting them
g. For interfering in their personal lives
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13. When you complain about your privacy violation to the concerned authority, do you
get heard and your problem gets resolved?
a. Yes
b. No
c. Sometimes
14. How much time does the authority takes to resolve your issue?
a. One day
b. One week
c. One month
d. More than a month
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