Privacy and confidentiality are related to new media as it deals with the accessibility of information. The main concern with privacy and confidentiality in new media is the accessibility of information mainly because whatever is posted on the Internet is no longer under the control of the user. On top of this, there are websites that flood the user with privacy agreements that are barely understandable since they are written with complex language which the user will likely not understand even with the help or reading skills such as context clues.
The problems that exist with this, is that within these terms of agreements tend to include clauses that the user relinquish control of their data to the website or service that they user and that data has the potential to be sold to third parties. By making potentially sensitive information public, anyone can access that data. The problems that exist can range from government surveillance, data mining and targeted advertising and potentially even cyberstalking. In certain circumstances, it can be argued that new media can be a purposeful loss of privacy since people continue to use potentially compromising services on a regular basis.
Interestingly enough, I wrote an entire paper on the risks of social media and the loss of privacy and what I just mentioned here on this blog post is just the tip of the iceberg. If you have any thoughts or questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below.
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