A Shared Responsibility For Online Privacy - 1243 Words

A Shared Responsibility for Online Privacy There are some things in life people can control and things they cannot. When driving, people can fasten their seat belt, keep their car’s limits, and focus on the area ahead to avoid car accidents. Whereas when flying, people cannot do many things to protect themselves, but rely on the government’s aviation regulations and airlines’ enforcement to increase flight safety. Likewise, when it comes to the online privacy, web users can control the passwords they set, the profile they create, and the statements they post on the social networks, but they cannot prevent themselves from being hurt due to technology companies’ malice and governments’ weak supervision and loose regulations. Technology†¦show more content†¦It means governments should make clear regulations on the network services in order to make sure that social networks are built with proper security and privacy. An American journalist Farhad Manjoo, in his article â€Å"It’ s Not All Facebook’s Fault,† mentions that Facebook failed to keep user information private; the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) urged Facebook to take actions to keep the promises about privacy it gave to its American users before. The FTC plays a role in making certain that services Facebook provides are in compliance with the privacy policy. It is a role of governments to ensure regulations take effect and is responsible for monitoring the implementation. More specifically, they may need to examine whether or not the service providers give users a clear notice regarding privacy and whether or not users express consent affirmatively before making their personal information available for business purposes. Obviously, governments have obligations to enforce and tightly supervise service providers to implement the regulations of security and privacy. Hence, governments should take responsibility to make privacy regulations on social networks and monitor the enforcement of the regulations. Moreover, technology companies have a primary responsibility to make users feel safe by creating online transparency. They should make information