As I reflect on one of week # 7 this article “California Passes Tough Social
Media Privacy Laws” by Michael Endler, it is amazing to believe that employers and schools would
interfere in a individuals private matters to determine the character of a
person by the way they behave on Facebook. I am not saying that I agree with
everything that is posted on Facebook, I have seen some really serious
disturbing posts but I also see that some individuals do it just for the shock
and reaction of others (they want to see how many likes and comments are made
to their post) and I see of these post coming from ignorant individuals that
are not aware that these things are monitored and in most cases stay on the web
forever. I understand that we live in a society that does not seem to value any
longer “privacy” or may not even know the meaning of it. Everybody seems to want
to be known and know everyone and we have been exposed to so many ways to connect
with others that we forget that we are also being watched by people that we do
not necessarily have any type of relationships with.
The connection is an open connection, in a two way street and
can be a dangerous one. And I am believer that even as we engage in this type of
social media activities we must be at our best behavior because we do not know
who may be watching us. But at the same time I do not believe that others have
a right to our privacy or so call privacy and to invade in our space and defy
who we are and make determinations of whether we have the integrity for a job
or for being accepted at a school. I am
happy to hear that California has taken the lead to ensure that people’s privacy
is protected. That employers or any other entity does not have the right to ask
a person for their user name and password on Facebook for them to check out
your site and determine your fate based on their believes. Like the article alludes
if you have different religious and sexual preferences from that of the
employer or school they may use that against you and fail the possibilities for
you to land a job or an opportunity at an Ivy League University. This is a free
nation and up to a certain point we are at fault for what is happening we have
let much of our personal life to be part of everyone’s life without realizing
that we have given up an important value “ freedom” and “ privacy”
