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Privacy and confidentiality in social media, digital identity and GDP


This blog post is about privacy in social media, digital identity and General Data Protection Regulation. First, I got acquainted with different blog post about privacy and confidentiality issues in social media. I wanted to concentrate on sites in Finland and I found a few good ones where to give comment. One of the blog posts was about social media and how it is seen different ways in different cultures. The examples were interesting. For example, in Chinese language there is no word for privacy. The closest term is probably yinsi, which means hiding a secret. We Finnish people have quite broad privacy area, but of course social media has change that a lot. The other interesting blog post was an overview social media usage in Finland and it includes research results. It tells for example that over 2,8 million people use Whatsapp and same amount Youtube. Also, many other social medias are popular. Quite many were still worried that information they give in social media might be used in a harmful way. The blog post also includes information about social media usage in companies and GDPR.

There are many privacy aspects which should be taking into consideration when using social media tools. Employees should realise that even though they can be private persons in social media, they also at the same time represent the company. It is not a good idea to talk bad about your employer or competitors. Some people use social media mainly in private life relationships, while others also build professional credibility and cooperate with colleagues. I personally only share my private life things in social media (except LinkedIn) and my career related things leaves outside. Maybe that is out fashioned, but I don´t want to mix those two.  Websites and apps generally provide privacy information in their privacy policy. Password are also one important privacy matter. Try to use strong password that are rather long than short. It is not good idea to use same password in different sites. Strong password helps people to protect themselves against hackers and identity theft.

There also many benefits of openness and transparency in social media. That hopefully decreases prank messages when it is easier to identify people. Nowadays organizations want to be open and transparent and want to communicate with customers that way. Often that increases companies to be more innovative. Customers can communicate with company, give comment, feedback and development ideas. Before companies often hide innovations and new inventions, because they didn´t want competitors to know. Now they want to take consumers along to develop the inventions at the very first beginning.  Companies also can identify their consumers better when they get information from social media. Sometimes there are also benefits in sharing personal information online. That can give more “human” picture of the company. People can see the humans behind the company and understand that also they sometimes make mistakes. There is serious damage that can occur if privacy isn´t taking care of. There can be hackers and identity thefts. Even though you are not so interested your own privacy, it is important to remember that for certain people, privacy means everything. Those people are for example victims of domestic violence, political activists, human rights activists and police officers. We can accidentally at the same time also reveal them.

Digital identity

A person´s digital identity is any information available online that can bind a persona to physical person. Online footprint includes behaviours, social profiles, device information, location and search history. It is important that companies know exactly what it is and know how to handle the data they have. To see what information I find about myself, I made a Google search. I was quite happy that there were not much information and all things I found were relevant. The first result was my LinkedIn profile. Then there was information related my previous school; my Thesis and one YouTube video about my Thesis. That was all that I quickly found. Right now, I feel that I have quite good control what information is about me in online. Of course, I can´t control everything, for example someone can share a picture of me without asking me. Nowadays the presumption is that you don´t exist if you are not in social media. Especially if you are for example politician or CEO. Then you should be active in different social media platforms. I personally also think that in this modern world there should be information online and it would be good that the person is quite active in social media.

 I know that social medias that I use know lot of facts about me, sometimes it worries me, sometimes I am relaxed with that fact. I´m aware also that I can delete the information there, but it will never really disappear, because someone has probably already downloaded or copied the material.  That is why it is important to think couple of times before downloading information or pictures. Once you put it online, it will be there forever. It is interesting to see how digital identity will even more develop in the future. Now we still need quite often our ID cards to prove our identity and we also need to be present. Even though, digital identity has developed lot of over past years, I think it will be developing even more in the future. It is interesting to see if everything is in digital form soon and there is no need for physical form of ID or personal contact.


General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
GDPR is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individual citizens in the European Union and the European Economic Area. It is the most important change in data privacy regulation in 20 years. There are many changes that happened after GDPR. It increased territorial scope, because it also applies to organizations located outside EU if they offer goods or services to EU. There are also penalties for companies that doesn´t follow GDPR rules. Also, the conditions for consent have been strengthened. Breach notifications are mandatory in all member states. In most social media platforms (like Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp) global privacy settings are GDPR compliant.

I search for Internet different ideas and opinions what you should share and what not to share in social media. You should share for example webinars, podcasts, blogs posts, press releases about your brand, news items about your company and other work and career related articles. Assume that nothing you share online is private. Remember also that the information will be there even after 20 years, so consider before sharing. Never share confidential information about your identity, financial information. Don´t tell your home address or share pictures about your valuable belongings and tell when you are taking next holiday. Otherwise you might end up being a victim of a burglary. Don´ tell too much about your family or other relatives. Check your social media profiles privacy settings regularly. Also think about your friends, don´t share pictures of them without asking or share sensitive information about them.

Copywrite is quite tricky thing when related to social media. In general, you are the only person who can authorize that content. However, when the content is posted in third-party platform like Facebook, the platform might take the rights to your copy. Those platforms can have then right to copy, modify or distribute the content. Still social media doesn´t own the work, the copywrite is retained the owner. Also, it doesn´t mean that everyone else using social media have right to share your posts or pictures.

Sources:

https://harto.wordpress.com/2019/04/17/sosiaalisen-median-katsaus-04-2019-somekatsaus-somefi/?unapproved=12652&moderation-hash=45f27e83cbabcbc48e795376aa54672a#comment-12652
https://antroblogi.fi/2018/04/julkinen-yksityinen-sosiaalinen-media/?unapproved=6477&moderation-hash=aa98c6f467a9e0ee64cc5a704b7b9aa6#comment-6477
https://allpryme.com/employee-privacy-laws/employee-privacy-laws/
https://www.privacyrights.org/consumer-guides/online-privacy-using-internet-safely
https://viestijat.fi/voiko-avoimuudella-lisata-organisaation-innovatiivisuutta/
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2018/11/15/demystifying-digital-identity-what-it-is-what-it-isnt-and-what-it-can-be/#236a182b2af1
https://eugdpr.org/the-regulation/
https://www.jeffbullas.com/20-things-you-should-share-on-social-media/
https://blog.trendmicro.com/top-five-things-to-not-share-online/
https://securitywing.com/top-10-things-not-post-share-online-via-social-media/
https://www.urbo.com/content/things-you-should-never-ever-share-on-social-media/
https://www.dreamhost.com/blog/10-legal-questions-online-content-answered/
http://www.legaltoday.com/gestion-del-despacho/nuevas-tecnologias/articulos/social-media-and-copyright-who-owns-the-content#

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