Online Privacy

Popular social networking websites, such as Facebook and Myspace, which have over 12 million Canadian users and approximately 200 million users worldwide (CBC News, 2009) has developed an increasing concern towards privacy issues. Millions of users around the world post up personal information on these networking websites to communicate their interests with others, share pictures and media, along with connecting with people world wide. Many people do not realize that the information we share when we go online is sold to advertisers and commercial websites which use it to advertise and sell us goods and services. Even information and pictures that we “delete” off of Facebook and Myspace are still kept and accessible by the owners of these social networking web pages and sold to various online advertising companies. “Users should be able to opt out of actions that could lead them to lose control over their personal information, she added. In some cases, that information could then be used for marketing purposes or even identity theft.”(CBC News, 2009) This is a growing ethical issue which is been disputed as a violation of Canadian Privacy Law. Social networking websites like Facebook and Myspace has had major criticism towards Facebook’s privacy policies. Is the information we share on the internet with our friends really secure? This is one of the major ethical dilemmas that social networking users face which is why people are being more selective in the information that they share online.