Privacy in New Media

With the influx of new media usage over the years, questions about the privacy afforded to us by the tech companies have come about. Just to create an account, you usually need an email or sometimes a phone number which must be verified. More commonly, you'd need to give away your first and last name.

There are some sites that ask for much more information, although not mandatory. Facebook is the best example: it asks for you work information, address, birthday, relationships, friends, etc. There is very little information that Facebook won't accept, and it's raised concerns that the company has too much information on the general public. Leaks, hacks, or even Facebook willingly selling/sharing the information of it's users are common concerns.

As users, we can mitigate this risk by limiting the amount of information that we put on social media sites. If it isn't required, then don't input it.