Privacy and Confidentiality

             With the constant advancement of digital technology and an ever increasing number of social media applications, the issue of privacy and confidentiality is one that has come to the forefront of social issues facing the newer generations. The main issues that are brought up are the inclinations of people, especially younger people, to let people into their life using social media applications. For example, with Snapchat, people can share pictures instantaneously with their friends. With Instagram people publicly share their pictures of a meal, a funny moment,  or of their vacation. With Twitter people can share their thoughts with essentially the world. A lot of the older generations view this as a strange social norm. These older generations value their privacy and the fact that young people are more than willingly to give that up for something as trivial as social status is worrisome to them.
            When it comes to confidentiality, users of social media applications run the risk of having their information and other potentially private information leaking to the public. Throughout the last several years we have seen the personal information of users of dating sites being leaked out to the public and having the whole world see who is using those sites. This makes for an interesting case when the information of people who are having extramarital affairs is leaked to the public. Another worrying trend is social media apps asking a user for access into their phone files and pictures. Sometimes it makes me wonder why these apps require our information and what they use this information for.
           As social media becomes more a part of our lives, the issues of privacy and confidentiality will continue to be in spotlight as individuals and advocacy groups continue to fight for their rights and to stop the intrusion of government and corporations into out lives and from accessing our private information.