The document discusses how Generation Y users are becoming increasingly wary of privacy on social networks as operators frequently change privacy settings. While 75% of Millennials have social media profiles, most place boundaries on them and monitor privacy settings closely. Surveys also found that 88% of Gen Y users support requiring websites to delete captured information about users, and 62% want the right to know all information websites have collected about them. However, social networks argue that loose privacy allows for more customized experiences, but this could also enable a form of "cyber-stalking". The document argues that trust is built on transparency, and frequent changes to privacy policies can undermine trust in social networks.

1. Do You Trust Your Social Network?
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2. Wouldn't you consider it an invasion of your
privacy if marketers could rummage through your
closet to check your brand preferences?
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3. what if
potential employers could disguise
themselves and enter your social life in order
to evaluate you for a job?
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4. Now consider Gen Y,
whose members live in an open environment, and embrace
social networking that breaks through the divide between their
online and offline worlds.
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5. Their Facebook pages are a natural extension of their social
lives, and they feel secure in the knowledge that they hold
the keys to their personal spaces.
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6. then, the rules are altered.
Social network operators begin unlocking the
doors to people's personal worlds.
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7. frequent changes in privacy settings in social
media are resulting in an entire generation
becoming increasingly wary and guarded about
their private lives.
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8. however, recent research by the Pew Internet Project found that
although 75% of Millennials in the US have a profile on a
social network, most place boundaries on it.
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9. the study found that members of Gen Y were more likely to
monitor privacy settings than older people, and
more likely to delete comments or remove their
names from photos so that they can't be identified
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10. In another survey by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology,
88% of a sample of Gen Y-ers voiced support
for a law that would require websites to delete captured
information
62% of them wanted the right to know everything a
website knows about them.
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11. operators of social networks argue that relatively loose
privacy restrictions improve the user experience and allow
customization of the platform for each user.
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12. for instance, they can track likes and dislikes to provide each
person with more relevant information.
But isn't this a kind of cyber-stalking?
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13. Look at the broader issue. I believe that collaboration
through social networks is an important way of building
trust.
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14. if you are in the business of enabling
collaboration through social networks, you have
to demonstrate that you can be trusted.
Trust is built on transparency.
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15. So, I ask,
can you afford to change the rules
midway? Or do frequent changes
corrode the very foundations of trust?
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16. Do you have some stories ? Share them at
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