Privacy & Confidentiality

In new media, many youth find themselves unable assess the issues of privacy and confidentiality. Since new media almost predates the adolescence of many, the way that people share their lives with almost no filter. Since social media has become a way of sharing global culture and practices, teens and even adults have not known when they have overshared information whether it be detailing issues in a relationship, with their jobs, or their families. Often times, sharing these issues on platforms like Facebook and and Twitter, have left some people fired, broken up with or tasked with repairing damaged relationships all while having the whole digital community observing these on-goings. These occurrences have left very few matters private. Moreover, with new media comes online shopping, online bank account access, and more. With the digitization of banking, storing of information like social security numbers, bank account numbers, and addresses, cyber criminals have developed ways of hack supposedly secure sites. This has heightened identity theft and company-wide security breaches, errors which plagued companies like Target, costing them millions of dollars. Matters of privacy and confidentiality in the age of new media face many challenges with the advent of ways to hack and expose personal information shared by the users of the new media made accessible to all.