Privacy & Confidentiality

Privacy is a big concern for new media. During the development of computer science in the 1940s to 1950s, there wasn't a concept of ownership of code. However, when personal computer use became widespread, companies sought to commercialize computer programming by collecting and selling user information. This sparked a debate regarding the extent to which user information belongs to companies or the user himself. One area in which privacy is a big issue is online advertising. Social networking sites, for example, host information about the user on their servers by the nature of the service social networks provide. Advertising companies can buy information regarding the end-user's interests and market themselves to certain users. Moving forward, a set of principles to guide the collection and use of personal information would help appease users, companies which collect personal information and companies which use personal information.