Privacy

               Before new media existed, it was not as easy for people to get personal or private information about another person, unless they knew them personally. New media opened many doors for people to expose their personal information for others to easily access, especially through social networking and social media. When signing up for social media accounts like Facebook, people tend to share their birthday, city of birth, current residential city, occupation and more. This private information is not required to obtain a Facebook account, but users provide that information anyway. Although this information may not lead to someone finding the person or tracking them down, it can lead to identity theft, with enough information given.  As a child, I remember my parents telling me never to post or provide over the internet any of our private information because “we don’t want bad people to find us”. Although the privacy issues have become much more intense than that, it is still a valid point.

                  Aside from social media, there are sites and companies who we trust to protect and confide in our personal and private information. Some examples include credit card companies, major shopping brands, and even our schools. Although there is a privacy protection clause on all of these sites, our information is still sitting in a database, accessible by people. The news article, University of Maryland Computer Security Breach Exposes 300,000 Records, reports an incident where private and personal records of students at the University of Maryland were hacked into. A small mistake such as “someone left the door open” can lead to someone breaking into data records, even of a secured place and database.