When a student enters their first year of college, the first thing they do is created a profile of themselves on Facebook. Students try to network with students in the same university, so that they will be able to get to know people at their university. Facebook users try to provide information about them, so others, who have similar interest, may become friends with them. But sometimes, Facebook users provide too much information and don’t protect their information, using the privacy controls. This can harm Facebook users because strangers can have access to their information. Strangers invading Facebook user’s privacy has become an issue on Facebook.
Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study is to recommend strategies for protecting private information on a social network called Facebook. This report will (1) look at the types of private information that are on the Facebook, and the privacy control settings. This report will (2) then investigate privacy issues and criticism of Facebook and (3) examine at how knowledgeable Facebook users are to the potential risks of releasing private information and if users are changing their privacy settings. This report will focus on Facebook users’ awareness of privacy issues by looking at a survey done by the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. I chose this topic because I have had privacy issues and I know friends on Facebook who have the same problem. This topic will benefit people at UWM, as well as all Facebook users because they probably have problems with privacy invasion or know someone who has problems with privacy protection on Facebook. My goal is to inform Facebook users about the privacy issues so that they will change their privacy settings and also recommend ways to protect their privacy.
Significance of Study
This study is significant because there are many Facebook users who are college students. Although some may know about the privacy issues, not many will do
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