Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Really, what anyone here thinks is irrelevant. What do YOU think? How many other people are writing about the self same subject and what will make your position different? As for opinions and social media's privacy issues: when people post ON social media platforms they're essentially giving up many of their "rights" to privacy by making their opinions known.

So perhaps the "issue" of privacy on social media is less of an issue that it's made out to be:
more so when the people moaning about invasions of privacy fail to realize that platforms such as Facebook allow individual users to control much of what's seen on their streams and by whom.

Why not consider which aspects of social media have the greatest impact? Or the ways in which social media is used (mostly, incorrectly) as a marketing tool and the ways managers, with a little forethought, can reverse this trend.

I'd urge you to steer away from the old chestnut about social media being "all about engagement":
as an argument or position, this train of marketing thought—accepted as it is as fact—is, in reality, fundamentally flawed because it ignores the process that creates the act of engagement.

How about social media as a platform for social good, or for social reform? Or social media as brand advocate? Or social media as movement creator? Or social media as political tool? Or as an educational tool?

The scope is wide: your focus must be narrow.

I believe you'll see quite different beliefs/values between the "digital natives" and "digital immigrants". Beside the age, the culture/trust is very different (aside: here's an article I wrote on this topic: https://www.manygoodideas.com/2012/08/01/which-group-are-you-marketing-to/).

A possible cross over argument/written discussion - social media's users demographics related to how each X/Y/millienium generation has differing privacy relationships with social media

Privacy, on the internet is a big issue. Now I'm not so familiar with the ins-and-outs of Facebook as such - I am aware that many people use private browsing. That is to say they don't allow a website to perform javascript actions. Hence things like Statcounter are practically useless in our day and age - an example is that I get around 75 hits on my php (server-side) counter for every one that makes my Statcounter (browser-side) go tick.

The issue with Facebook is that to use it you must login, and by logging in you accept their cookies and practically anything else they wish. Note that here in the Netherlands, the use of Facebook has dropped some 10% - I found this in English for you: https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/03/dutch_facebook_user_numbers_...

That will have a knock-on effect for their advertising.

Please remember that the internet is not private by any means. If you have called up this page on your computer, whatever private browsing you may use, you still need to make a request to the server that holds this page. That request needs to be sent to you - and that can only be done if you have supplied your IP address. If your IP address is incorrect, you don't get the page sent to you, do you? Because this isn't like meeting someone in the street: only you two know it happens. The internet needs channels and routers and most importantly it needs your IP address.

Because when some Chinese guy comes along with a spoof IP address*, all I need do is look down the records on my server - and there he is! If he wants my page, he gives me his information. There is no other way. (*On my php server-side counter).

My guess is that you are having problems making a clear argument about privacy because it is simply such a big topic. You are trying to include everything you meet - and every turn you take there's yet another dimension. My advice is to narrow your focus to the elements that are already prominent in your dissertation and pare away the rest. Either that or the elements that you find interesting. That will make the whole thing much more immediate - and you can title your dissertation accordingly.

You mention that "people are ok with their personal information being in the public sphere for anyone to see" - my Facebook is unindexed and available only to those who find me through friends-of-friends. My business is run through completely different channels using techniques that are as effective as they are private. As to intimacy, you cannot be intimate on the internet. You don't have to be private about it - you can kiss and cuddle on the train if you so choose - you do need the two people to be together. The internet can never replace that, just as it can never replace real businesses in the real world - people have needs: eating being one of them. My local bakery will see a visit from me shortly so that I can buy bread. Sure, I could order it online, it still needs to be made and delivered. That's usually more expensive than my local baker.