In the article “The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks”, Emm (2014) discusses the increasing danger of using the Internet. As more of routine activities have to rely on the Internet today, people begin to feel apprehensive about the authorities and the large companies spying on their personal lives. However, the author believes that the real dangers are hidden behind the mass of seemingly irrelevant information that users who are plugged in choose to put online. These information can be used by some concealed audiences to attack not only the individual but also companies. He indicates that these threats can easily to be ignored due to the false sense of security of users. The author also lists some useful security advice to readers.
The concern for the dangers of over-sharing expressed by the author in the article is reasonable. One of the reasons why people have a tendency to overshare on social media, as elaborated by the author, is because the smartphone is not a usual victim of cyber-attack. The other is due to the neglect from the public as people believe that the dangers of over-sharing have been exaggerated and no one will pay attention to normal users’ social media and digital records for some special reasons. In fact, the dangers are more severe than most people imagine.
As early as 2010, a new company named Identified had started to collect users data , merely by pulling public information from their social media accounts, and allotted a score to each of them to represent their attraction for potential employers. Someone might have a profile in Identified even if they haven’t signed up for the service. These data obviously have large attractions for some big companies and PepsiCo(PEP) had already signed with Identified. Those kinds of collection may never be observed by these latent ‘users’ , but job hopping could be difficult for them if they have low scores(Daniel,2011).
The other concealed observers who may regularly pay attention to social media are lawyers and investigators. Nowadays, Facebook has become an efficient tool for lawyers to find evidence. Different from the traditional investigative ways which rely on following and subpoenaing, the personal details posted on Facebook can help lawyers establish a person’s habits and character and photos shared on Facebook could be more directly used as evidence to show when and where what happened.
Over-sharing on social media may also hurt people’s careers. Threats such as being caught by the boss when someone is loafing on their job are just part of it. More often, the employers will have more in-depth observations of their employees through social media. Doing Google searches and looking through applicants social media pages have become the normal procedure for some companies before they provide interviews. “Never say anything negative about a current or former employer on your social media pages. Employers will reasonably assume that if you trash-talk your current or former employers, they will be the next ones to be trashed” human resources consultant Brenda Vander Meulen(2014) suggests.
The dangers of over-sharing are hidden in various perspective of people’s lives and taking responsibility for what we have posted is essential for netizens. To prevent some irreparable consequences of over-sharing, following some safety tips to protect personal information should be started now.
Reference:
David Emm(2014). The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks. Retrieved from:
John.Egan(2014). Over-sharing on social media can cost you. Retrieved from: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/personal-finance/3-financial-dangers-of-social-media-1.aspx
Daniel Roberts(2011). 社交网络过度分享风潮中蕴藏的商机. 财富.com
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http://www.fortunechina.com/technology/c/2011-12/01/content_80849.htm
Thank you for making the effort to rewrite this!
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