Week 5 - Privacy and Security

A lot of talk has circulated since Myspace’s beginnings about privacy and security, as well as the influence interaction with Myspace has on young people.

In June 2006, a Deputy Sheriff in Florida was fired for posting "inappropriate information" on his profile page. (Ives, 2006). Other instances of people being fired because of their Myspace pages and/or activity abound (Porter, 2007) and(Weboptimiser.com, 2005). It raises two questions – “Should employers be able to check up and even fire workers based on their Myspace Profiles?” and “Do people not realize that their profiles are public?”!

I tired to approach the first question from two angles – as an employee, and as an employer.

As an employee, it would make me uncomfortable to think my boss is “checking up on me”. It doesn’t relate to work, and therefore shouldn’t be of any interest to my employer. Although I don’t believe my profile has anything negative or incriminating, I think the general feeling is that your profile is yours, personal.

But in reality it’s in public space, and as an employer I’d think that entitles me to be able to look at it. I think this point is one which most people miss. Why shouldn’t an employer looking to hire someone be able to check an applicants Myspace page? It’s going to give them a more realistic view then a glossed-up résumé.

Myspace have realized that a number of users want to be exclusive about who views their profile pages (as well as reacting to bad press around privacy). There is the included option to block a users profile from public eyes: the user has to approve a profile view (Myspace.com, 2007[2]). They also have “Safety Tips” which encourage people to be wary of what they post (Myspace.com, 2007[1]).

When I first opened my profile I had set it to “public”. After a few months changed it to “private”. I found that my social networking focused on my existing “real world” friendships and I was not interacting with unknown people I had added to my friend list. Also, spam emails and friendship requests abounded. I found that the change of security status solved these problems.

References & Quoted Links

• Ives, M. (2006). Deputy fired for MySpace.com postings. Available: http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060621/NEWS/60621003/1001/NEWS01. Last accessed 27 October 2007.

• Porter, J. (2007). Woman Denied Degree because of MySpace Profile Pic. Available: http://bokardo.com/archives/woman-denied-degree-because-of-myspace-profile/. Last accessed 27 October 2007.
  
  
• Weboptimiser.com. (2005). AAA workers fired over MySpace messages. Available: http://www.weboptimiser.com/search_engine_marketing_news/15018570.html. Last accessed 27 October 2007.
  
  
• Myspace.com. (2007). Safety Tips. Available: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=cms.viewpage&placement=safetytips. Last accessed 27 October 2007.
  

• Myspace.com. (2007). How do I set my profile to private? . Available: http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=misc.faq&Category=6&Question=42. Last accessed 27 October 2007.