How to Protect Yourself from Social Media Threats

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Negative and Positive Aspects of Social Media on the Internet

As per the view of Kietzmann and et.al., (2011) in its initial stage social media started off as a web-based page or application enabling its users to share text messages amongst themselves. In recent times, social media has introduced pervasive and substantial changes to communication between communities, organizations, and individuals. These changes have their fair share of positive as well as negative impacts on the internet. Based on the Global Digital Report, 2019, it was observed that there was a stable increase in the worldwide users of social media by 9% year-on-year which in turn helped the growth of the worldwide net (Kemp, 2019). Due to the increasing interest of governments and businesses in social media communications, there is an overall increase in the usage of the worldwide internet. Many developed nations are presently in discussion about the possible inclusion of Internet services as one of the basic elements of human needs. Such discussions have been started as a direct result of the attention capture of users by social media.

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As illustrated by Jackson and Ahuja, (2016), the internet has now penetrated the personal lives of its users influencing their thoughts and establishing control over the decisions made by them. Social media marketing has emerged as a profitable field of employment, with businesses investing a lot in social media campaigns promoting the internet as a necessary tool in the field of marketing. Social media sites have also provided new opportunities for businesses to increase their sales online, boosting e-commerce like never before. These sites have introduced a new field of data mining, wherein user data is used for targeted marketing, leading to the starting up of different organizations dependent on the World Wide Web to grow their businesses. The usage of social media has increased over the period and people have eased their daily life activities like education, business, and even it is political campaigns, so they think it is possible due to the internet. Social media has also increased the value of the internet as almost all organizations, educational institutions and families have introduced the internet in the process of hiring assessment, targeting on selection of suitable future employees online, job search, for providing effective educational programs. Hence, it can be stated that social media has played a vital role in making internet services more popular amongst its users, promoting advancements in the internet framework. Social media have enhanced the features and extent of usability of the internet. For instance, in the past internet was used to exchange only text format of information but the advent of social media has changed the ways of sending information (audio, video, images) on the internet which has enhanced the usability of the internet in the current scenario.

As noted by Puspita and Rohedi, (2018) due to the vast reach of social media amongst its users, it is very much possible for anyone to spread false information amongst the public. This may result in a wide shutdown of internet services by the authorities and a possible stay imposed on internet freedom altogether, by the government. Since there is no check on the content shared on social media sites by users, there is always a possibility of wrong image portrayal of the internet itself. With the increasing number of social media users, there has always been the threat of personal information leaks of users made possible also with the help of the World Wide Web itself. Social media platforms have also been a landmine of fraudulent and dangerous traps aiming to harm the users accessing these sites. The usage of social media sites to trap and harm users has also given a bad image to internet communities providing users access to social media. The power of social media to cater to many audiences has also led to the internet becoming a tool for political polarization and negative influencing of the public. Although Social media provides its users a chance for self-presentation and worldwide community building, the risks these platforms offer can also not be denied. Designed to engage as many users as possible, these sites often become addictive for the users, declining their medical health, and negatively impacting the image of internet services altogether. Thus, it is evident that social media possess the power to impact the internet itself, largely based on its usage by the users.

Challenges and Measures of Security and Privacy in Social Media

According to Kumar and Somani, (2018) Security of Social media is very important which helps to protect the personal data of users who are online. Social media is the platform which connects the whole world with the help of the internet to exchange information. This helps to increase knowledge and provide better opportunities to make decisions. It has been analysed that social media is facing challenges in providing security to their frequent users. Social media is becoming a platform to increase business activities. Security issues are generated from the non-active accounts of users which are operated by hackers to gain all the personal information and use it for their benefit. Another issue faced in the effective security of social media is a lack of understanding of security measures or mistakes made by users who accidentally share very confidential information in public. This happens due to a lack of concentration and skill to focus on one task. Phishing attacks and Frauds are also a very big problem which is faced in security of social media accounts. This fraud is done to get all the personal information like bank account numbers, and passwords from the users with a fake identity. 

In the opinion of Zhang and Gupta, (2018) social media can be secured in various ways which can also help users to protect their information from hackers and frauds and use social media for positive activities. Setting strong passwords every month which is unique and includes special characters which are very hard to predict helps to provide security. Security of social media is also enhanced by the help of official announcements to all the followers about the authenticity of their account in case of any fraud they are not liable. Avoiding posting personal information like holidays, helps to improve security measures.

As illustrated by Marwick, Fontaine and Boyd, (2017) stalking is a very big issue on social media due to a lack of privacy efficiency many users can easily stalk other users to know about their activities. Harassment is also a problem which is faced in creating privacy on social media as all users are not as friendly and turn out to be threats there are many cases in which women face humiliation on social media due to the spreading of personal information by hacking. It also turns into blackmailing and money extortions from the users to exchange stolen personal information of users. In recent innovations, the location of users is also determined on social media websites which is also a threat to the privacy of users and it can also impact their personal life and the threat of life.

Such and Criado, (2016) stated that the privacy of social media can be measured by using secured devices which have privacy protection and internet virus protection applications to protect all the information of users. Location features should also be turned off to protect the privacy of the location where the user is currently. With the help of advanced authentication technology which to secure login credentials from unknown persons. The virtual private network helps to secure all the information which users have visited in past and it also secures the data which is received or sent to another user. With the help of a secondary email account, it helps to provide privacy of notifications which are revived from work profiles. Every social media site has different privacy policies and privacy settings available which every user has to read properly to understand the threats and modify all the privacy settings to secure their privacy on social media.

Features And Application And Suitability Of Tiktok And Linkedin For Business

With the comparative study mentioned above, it is evident that any social media platform markets itself as a better communication tool than its competitors. Considering the case study of TikTok and LinkedIn, it can be observed that both platforms are different in terms of their applications and features. But the only thing common amongst them both is the purpose of the applications to form an online society. With a large difference in the target audience of both applications, it can be observed that both are on the path of rapid growth. The main reason behind the success of them both can be linked to the constant need of people to be a part of some society, with like-minded people sharing the same interests and ideas. This society can be physical or virtual. Therefore, it can be stated that social media platforms do work as successful modes of communication between people. These social media platforms also consist of user-made groups used by users themselves as a means of fast communication between themselves. Also, the newly coined term 'viral videos' in the broadcast of every huge media outlet confirms the role of social media platforms as dedicated communicators amongst the public.

CONCLUSION

It can be concluded that social media platforms have a major impact on the internet. The impacts were found to be dual i.e. both positive and negative, largely based on how the users decide to use various social media platforms and the influence they have. It was further concluded that social media platforms faced challenges in providing security and privacy to their users, leading to frequent malware, phishing, and fraudulent attacks. It was also concluded that these attacks can be easily prevented by the users themselves with the help of gaining education regarding their account privacy settings and user content posting. With the help of a comparative study, it was further concluded that TikTok and LinkedIn can be used as efficient tools for business sustainability. Finally, it was concluded that all social media platforms can be considered efficient communication tools shortly.

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